Patent ID: 8309915

Claim:
A mass spectrometer comprising: a source presenting multiple species of charged particles along an axis; an axially inhomogeneous field chamber positioned to receive the charged particles along the axis and providing a series of independently controllable electrodes to expose the particles to an arbitrary and time-variant electric field as the charged particles move along the axis; a detector system positioned to receive the charged particles from the axially inhomogeneous field chamber to detect differences in arrival time or spatial separation of the particles after passing through the axially inhomogeneous field chamber; and an electronic computer executing a stored program to: (i) apply different electric fields to a first subset of spatially-separated species defining a substantially continuous range of adjacent charged particles within the axially inhomogeneous field chamber over a continuous range of electric fields to increase a velocity difference of the first subset of spatially-separated species without comparably increasing a velocity difference of a second subset of spatially-separated species within the axially inhomogeneous field chamber, and (ii) read the detector system and output mass spectrogram data reflecting the different electric fields.