Described herein are mass spectrometry systems and methods which improve the accuracy of isobaric tag-based quantification by alleviating the pervasive problem of precursor interference and co-isolation of impurities through gas-phase purification. During the gas-phase purification, the mass-to-charge ratios of precursor ions within at least a selected range are selectively changed allowing ions having similar unmodified mass-to-charge ratios to be separated before further isolation, fragmentation or analysis.

In an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) system, ions are transmitted into a collision/reaction cell. A DC potential is applied at an exit of the cell at a first magnitude to generate a DC potential barrier effective to prevent the ions from exiting the cell. The DC potential barrier is maintained during a confinement period to perform an interaction. After the confinement period, analyte ions or product ions are transmitted to a mass spectrometer by switching the exit DC potential to a second magnitude effective to allow the analyte ions or product ions to pass through the cell exit as a pulse. The analyte ions or product ions are then counted during a measurement period. The interaction may be ion-molecule reactions or ion-molecule collisions.

A method of performing an entangling operation between two trapped ions in a quantum computer includes selecting a gate duration value of a pulse to be applied to a first ion and a second ion in a chain of trapped ions, determining one or more tones of the pulse, each tone comprising an amplitude value and a detuning frequency value, based on the selected gate duration value and frequencies of the motional modes of the chain of trapped ions, generating the pulse having the one or more tones, each tone comprising the determined amplitude and the determined detuning frequency values, and applying the generated pulse to the first and second ions for the gate duration value. Each of the trapped ions has two frequency-separated states defining a qubit, and motional modes of the chain of trapped ions each have a distinct frequency.

A method of performing simultaneous entangling gate operations in a trapped-ion quantum computer includes selecting a gate duration value and a detuning frequency of pulses to be individually applied to a plurality of participating ions in a chain of trapped ions to simultaneously entangle a plurality of pairs of ions among the plurality of participating ions by one or more predetermined values of entanglement interaction, determining amplitudes of the pulses, based on the selected gate duration value, the selected detuning frequency, and the frequencies of the motional modes of the chain of trapped ions, generating the pulses having the determined amplitudes, and applying the generated pulses to the plurality of participating ions for the selected gate duration value. Each of the trapped ions in the chain has two frequency-separated states defining a qubit, and motional modes of the chain of trapped ions each have a distinct frequency.

A method of performing a computation using a quantum computer includes generating a first laser pulse and a second laser pulse to cause entanglement interaction between a first trapped ion and a second trapped ion of a plurality of trapped ions that are aligned in a first direction, each of the plurality of trapped ions having two frequency-separated states defining a qubit, and applying the generated first laser pulse to the first trapped ion and the generated second laser pulse to the second trapped ion. Generating the first laser pulse and the second laser pulse includes stabilizing the entanglement interaction between the first and second trapped ions against fluctuations in frequencies of collective motional modes of the plurality of trapped ions in a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction.

A method of performing a computation using a quantum computer includes generating a plurality of laser pulses used to be individually applied to each of a plurality of trapped ions that are aligned in a first direction, each of the trapped ions having two frequency-separated states defining a qubit, and applying the generated plurality of laser pulses to the plurality of trapped ions to perform simultaneous pair-wise entangling gate operations on the plurality of trapped ions. Generating the plurality of laser pulses includes adjusting an amplitude value and a detuning frequency value of each of the plurality of laser pulses based on values of pair-wise entanglement interaction in the plurality of trapped ions that is to be caused by the plurality of laser pulses.

Certain configurations described herein are directed to mass spectrometer systems that can use a gas mixture to select and/or detect ions. In some instances, the gas mixture can be used in both a collision mode and in a reaction mode to provide improved detection limits using the same gas mixture.

The present invention concerns a method for sequencing oligosaccharides, which makes it possible to identify the primary sequence of an oligosaccharide of unknown structure, including its monosaccharide composition, the position (regiochemistry) and configuration (stereochemistry) of glycosidic bonds, the nature and position of functional modifications, and its branched structure, particularly including the identification of the reducing end.

An analysis device for a gaseous sample includes a mass spectrometer (6) having a measurement chamber and an inlet (5) leading into the measurement chamber, and a laser irradiation unit (30, 3). The analysis device is designed to convey the gaseous sample to the inlet by a flow including the gaseous sample. The laser irradiation unit (30, 3) is designed to ignite a plasma (1) by a laser beam (2) in the flow (4).

A method of mass spectrometry is disclosed comprising: performing a plurality of cycles of operation during a single experimental run, wherein each cycle comprises: mass selectively transmitting precursor ions of a single mass, or range of masses, through or out of a mass separator or mass filter at any given time, wherein the mass separator or mass filter is operated such that the single mass or range of masses transmitted therefrom is varied with time; and mass analysing ions.