公开(公告)号：US20040144916A1

公开(公告)日：2004-07-29

申请号：US10758511

申请日：2004-01-15

Applicant: University of Manitoba

Inventor： Andrew N. Krutchinsky ,  Alexandre V. Loboda ,  Victor L. Spicer ,  Werner Ens ,  Kenneth G. Standing

IPC: H01J049/00

CPC classification number: H01J49/063 ,  H01J49/04 ,  H01J49/164 ,  H01J49/401

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for providing an ion transmission device or interface between an ion source and a spectrometer. The ion transmission device can include a multipole rod set and includes a damping gas, to damp spatial and energy spreads of ions generated by a pulsed ion source. The multipole rod set has the effect of guiding the ions along an ion path, so that they can be directed into the inlet of a mass spectrometer. The invention has particular application to MALDI (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization) ion sources, which produce a small supersonic jet of matrix molecules and ions, which is substantially non-directional, and can have ions travelling in all available directions from the source and having a wide range of energy spreads. The ion transmission device can have a number of effects, including: substantially spreading out the generated ions along an ion axis to generate a quasi-continuous beam; reducing the energy spread of ions emitted from the source; and at least partially suppressing unwanted fragmentation of analyte ions. Consequently, a number of pulses of ions can be delivered to the time-of-flight or other spectrometer, for each cycle of the ion generation.