Apparatus comprising an ion mobility spectrometer

Abstract

A mass spectrometer is disclosed comprising a first chamber (10) and a second chamber (5). The second chamber (5) is located downstream of the first chamber 10 and an inter-chamber aperture (12) is provided between the two chambers (5,10). An ion guide (13) is located in the first chamber (10) and an ion mobility spectrometer (6) is located in the second chamber (5). Helium gas is provided to the first chamber (10). As ions are accelerated towards the ion mobility spectrometer 6 from a relatively low pressure region they pass initially into the first chamber (10). The helium gas provided in the first chamber (10) minimises ion fragmentation and ion discrimination effects as ions are accelerated into a relatively high pressure region. The ions are then transmitted by the ion guide (13) and are subsequently transmitted to the ion mobility spectrometer (6) located in the second chamber (5).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.