Patent ID: 6717132
Filing Date: 2004-04-06
Classification: H01J

Abstract:
A time-of-flight mass spectrometer with injection of a narrowly defined ion beam having ions which fly in a direction parallel to an axis x, the spectrometer comprising:a pulser which accelerates, in pulses, a segment of the ion beam with a gridless slit diaphragm that extends parallel to the x-axis, the acceleration being parallel to an axis y that is perpendicular to the x-axis so that the accelerated ions form a band-shaped ion beam; at least one electrical reflector that receives the ion beam from the pulser and accelerates it with a gridless slit diaphragm that extends in the x-direction, the reflector acceleration being in a direction opposite to the acceleration provided by the pulser; and a detector that receives the reflected ion beam from the reflector and provides temporally resolved measurement of the ion beam, wherein the gridless slit diaphragms of the pulser and the reflector provide focusing of the ion beam on the detector in a direction parallel to an axis z that is perpendicular to both the x-axis and the y-axis.