The invention comprises a method for separating ions, comprising the steps of: providing an ion cyclotron resonance separator with a longitudinal axis; applying a magnetic field gradient along a length of the longitudinal axis; passing a single fixed radio frequency radially across the longitudinal axis; and spatially separating the ions at mass-to-charge ratio resonance locations along a length of the longitudinal axis, where the magnetic field gradient is within a range of 0 to 0.65 Tesla, where the single fixed radio frequency is maintained in a range of 40 kHz to 20 MHZ, and where the step of spatially separating further comprises the step of spiraling radially outward at a first resonance location a first set of ions, of the ions, the first set of ions comprising a first range of mass-to-charge ratios, the first resonance location comprising a first mass-to-charge ratio resonant with the applied radio frequency.