Time of flight mass spectrometer
First Claim
1. A time of flight mass spectrometer, comprising:
- an electric field generator for creating a loop type or reciprocal type of multi-turn track for causing ions to travel in substantially a same path one or more times;
an ion source located on or out of the multi-turn track at which the ions begin to fly;
an ion detector located out of the multi-turn track for detecting the ions that have traveled in the multi-turn track one or more times and left the multi-turn track; and
a compensator, located between a position at which the ions leave the multi-turn track and the ion detector or between the ion source and a position at which the ions enter the multi-turn track, for compensating the focusing of ions so as to achieve the time-focusing of the ions throughout an overall flight path along which the ions travel after leaving the ion source until reaching the ion detector.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a time of flight mass spectrometer having an ion optics forming a multi-turn track, which is capable of time-focusing the ions while allowing the multi-turn track to be configured in an unlimited and highly variable manner. In a specific form of the invention, a reflector 9 is provided on the flight path between the position where the ions leave the loop orbit P and the ion detector 10 located outside the loop orbit P, and the condition of the electric field generated by the reflector 9 is appropriately determined. Thus, even if the ions cannot be well time-focused by the ion optics 2 creating the sector-shaped electric fields 4 and 7, it is possible to compensate the time-focusing performance with the reflector 9 to achieve a good performance of time-focusing of the ion throughout the overall system wherein the ions leave the ion source 1 and finally reach the ion detector 10. Thereby, the ions can reach the ion detector 10 at approximately the same time even if the ions having the same mass number have different levels of energy at the moment they leave the ion source 1.
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. A time of flight mass spectrometer, comprising:
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an electric field generator for creating a loop type or reciprocal type of multi-turn track for causing ions to travel in substantially a same path one or more times;
an ion source located on or out of the multi-turn track at which the ions begin to fly;
an ion detector located out of the multi-turn track for detecting the ions that have traveled in the multi-turn track one or more times and left the multi-turn track; and
a compensator, located between a position at which the ions leave the multi-turn track and the ion detector or between the ion source and a position at which the ions enter the multi-turn track, for compensating the focusing of ions so as to achieve the time-focusing of the ions throughout an overall flight path along which the ions travel after leaving the ion source until reaching the ion detector. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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Specification