Confining positive and negative ions with fast oscillating electric potentials
AssigneeThermo Finnigan LLC
InventorJohn E. P. Syka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for trapping or guiding ions. Ions are introduced into an ion trap or ion guide. The ion trap or ion guide includes a first set of electrodes and a second set of electrodes. The first set of electrodes defines a first portion of an ion channel to trap or guide the introduced ions. Periodic voltages are applied to electrodes in the first set of electrodes to generate a first oscillating electric potential that radially confines the ions in the ion channel, and periodic voltages are applied to electrodes in the second set of electrodes to generate a second oscillating electric potential that axially confines the ions in the ion channel.
Claims20
A method of fragmenting precursor ions, comprising:
- introducing precursor ions into an ion channel of a two-dimensional ion trap;
- introducing reagent ions into the ion channel, the reagent and precursor ions having opposite polarities;
- simultaneously confining the precursor and reagent ions in both the axial and radial dimensions of the ion channel;
- and
- allowing the precursor ions to interact with the reagent ions to produce product ions.
A mass spectrometer system, comprising:
- a precursor ion supplier configured to generate precursor ions;
- a reagent ion supplier configured to generate reagent ions having a polarity opposite to that of the precursor ions;
- a two-dimensional ion trap configured to receive the precursor ions and the reagent ions;
- and
- a controller, coupled to the ion trap, configured to apply a first periodic voltage to a first set of electrodes of the ion trap and to apply a second periodic voltage to a second set of electrodes of the ion trap, such that the precursor ions and the reagent ions may be simultaneously confined in both the axial and radial dimensions of an ion channel in the interior of the ion trap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.