Maldi-tof mass spectrometers with delay time variations and related methods

A delayed extraction (DE) time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF MS), comprising:

• a housing;
• an analysis flow path comprising a flight tube in the housing;
• a laser coupled to the analysis flow path;
• and
• at least one detector in communication with the flight tube;
• wherein the laser generates laser pulses with a plurality of different delay times during signal acquisition of a respective single sample, wherein one or more of the delay times of the plurality of different delay times is increased or decreased from another delay time in a range of about 1 nanosecond to about 500 nanoseconds, and wherein the at least one detector is configured to obtain spectra of the respective single sample associated with the different delay times to thereby obtain signal with a plurality of different focus masses at the at least one detector.

A method of analyzing a respective sample, comprising:

• providing a mass spectrometer with a flight tube;
• transmitting laser pulses;
• electronically and automatically varying delay times of the transmitted laser pulses thereby providing different delays between ionization and acceleration;
• in response to the transmitted laser pulses with the varied delay times, acquiring signal of the respective sample with different focus masses at a detector of the mass spectrometer;
• and
• analyzing the acquired signal to identify if one or more microorganisms is present.