Patent ID: 11817303

Abstract:
Improved pulsed ion sources and pulsed converters are proposed for multi-pass time-of-flight mass spectrometer, either multi-reflecting (MR) or multi-turn (MT) TOF. A wedge electrostatic field (45) is arranged within a region of small ion energy for electronically controlled tilting of ion packets (54) time front. Tilt angle γ of time front (54) is strongly amplified by a post-acceleration in a flat field (48). Electrostatic deflector (30) downstream of the post-acceleration (48) allows denser folding of ion trajectories, whereas the injection mechanism allows for electronically adjustable mutual compensation of the time front tilt angle, i.e. γ=0 for ion packet in location (55), for curvature of ion packets, and for the angular energy dispersion. The arrangement helps bypassing accelerator (40) rims, adjusting ion packets inclination angles α2 and what is most important, compensating for mechanical misalignments of the optical components.