Liquid phase ion mobility spectrometer

A method comprising:

• ionizing an analyte to generate ions;
• introducing the ions into a separation region of a drift chamber;
• directing, at a velocity, a liquid flow of a separation media comprising a non-polar liquid through the separation region to apply first forces to the ions within the separation region of the drift chamber;
• using an electric field with a non-zero gradient, applying second forces to the ions within a separation region of a drift chamber, the second forces counter the first forces;
• modifying at least one of the velocity or the electric field;
• and
• after modifying the at least one of the velocity or the electric field, detecting the ions at an ion detector to generate a signal.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing processing circuitry to perform, using an ion mobility spectrometer, operations comprising:

• ionizing an analyte to generate ions;
• introducing the ions into a separation region of a drift chamber;
• directing, at a velocity, a liquid flow of a separation media comprising a non-polar liquid through the separation region to apply first forces to the ions within the separation region of the drift chamber;
• using an electric field with a non-zero gradient, applying second forces to the ions within a separation region of a drift chamber, the second forces counter the first forces;
• modifying at least one of the velocity or the electric field;
• and
• after modifying the at least one of the velocity or the electric field, detecting the ions at an ion detector to generate a signal.