A method of data-independent mass spectrometric analysis of compounds of a compound class of interest comprises: determining or retrieving a distribution, over a mass-to-charge (m/z) ratio range of interest, of a number of primary ion species of members of said compound class having m/z ratios within each respective one of a plurality of m/z sub-ranges of the m/z ratio range of interest; defining m/z positions of a set consisting of a number, n.sub.sb, of finite-width bins, within the m/z ratio range of interest, the set of bins excluding m/z sub-ranges within the m/z ratio range of interest that encompass fewer than a threshold number, t.sub.sb, of the primary ion species, wherein the defining based on the determined or received distribution; and performing a plurality of tandem mass analyses, each tandem mass analysis pertaining to primary ion species within a respective one of the defined bins.

A detection apparatus and method for detecting charged particles. The device relies on a detection assembly comprising microchannel plates. The useful surface of the microchannel plate device is maximized in time through the use of beam deflection means upstream of the detection front.

An ion manipulation device and systems and methods for controlling the ion manipulation device. The ion manipulation device includes a pair of counter-facing surfaces and a plurality of electrodes arranged in one or more linear array on each of the counter-facing surfaces. At least one RF power source is coupled to the electrodes and configured to apply an RF potential to the electrodes to create an electric field that inhibits charged particles from approaching the counter-facing surfaces. At least one DC power source is coupled to the electrodes and configured to apply a DC potential to affect the movement of ions between the counter-facing surfaces in a direction parallel to the counter-facing surfaces. The DC potential and the RF potential are applied to the electrodes simultaneously.

Systems and methods for filtering a continuous beam of ions are provided. An acceleration electric field is applied to a continuous beam of ions using an accelerator to produce an accelerated beam of ions. A field is applied to the accelerated beam to separate ions in time and space using a deflector producing a separated beam of ions. The field applied by the deflector is a rotating field or a circulant rastering field. The rotating field can be a rotating magnetic or electric field. Only accept those ions from the separated beam whose m/z values lie within a range centered around a target m/z value using an aperture. The aperture can include a pinhole aperture in a rotating disk or an annular aperture in a first stationary disk, a second deflector, and a pinhole aperture in the center of a second stationary disk.

An ion filter for a mass spectrometer, the apparatus comprising an ion modifier; an ion selector configured to select a subset of a sample of ions based on their mobility in a gas; and a controller configured to operate the ion modifier in a first mode to modify the ions selected by the ion selector to provide daughter ions, and configured to operate the ion modifier in a second mode to output the ions selected by the ion selector; wherein the ion filter is adapted for providing output ions from the ion modifier to an intake of a mass spectrometer.

An ion beam irradiation apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an ion source, a mass separator, and an energy filter. The mass separator sorts dopant ions having a specific mass number and valence from an ion beam extracted from the ion source, and outputs the dopant ions. The energy filter is formed to define a beam passing region for allowing the ion beam to pass therethrough, and configured to have a given filter potential in response to application of a voltage thereto to separate passable ions capable of passing through the beam passing region and non-passable ions incapable of passing through the beam passing region, from each other by a difference in ion energy. The given filter potential is set such that the dopant ions are included in the passable ions, and a portion of unwanted ions which cannot be separated from the dopant ions by the mass separator are included in the non-passable ions.

A plasma processing system includes a plasma chamber configured to contain a plasma, a shutter chamber fluidically coupled to the plasma chamber via a first orifice, a mass spectrometer fluidically coupled to the shutter chamber, and a shutter disposed in the shutter chamber between the first orifice and the mass spectrometer in the path of a particle beam. The first orifice is configured to generate the particle beam from the plasma using a pressure differential between the shutter chamber and the plasma chamber. The mass spectrometer includes an ionizer configured to ionize species of the particle beam by sweeping through a range of electron energies in a plurality of energy steps. The shutter is configured to open and close during each of the plurality of energy steps.

Certain embodiments described herein are directed to rod assemblies such as, for example, quadrupole, hexapole and octupole rod assemblies. In some instances, the rod assemblies include at least one pole comprising an integral fluid path configured to fluidically couple an ion volume formed by the assembly to an outer volume of the assembly to remove fluid within the ion volume to the outer volume while containing ions of a selected mass-to-charge range.

A mass spectrometer comprises: an ion source that generates ions having an initial range of mass-to-charge ratios; an auxiliary ion detector, downstream from the ion source that receives a plurality of first ion samples derived from the ions generated by the ion source and determines a respective ion current measurement for each of the plurality of first ion samples; a mass analyzer, downstream from the ion source that receives a second ion sample derived from the ions generated by the ion source and to generate mass spectral data by mass analysis of the second ion sample; and an output stage that establishes an abundance measurement associated with at least some of the ions generated by the ion source based on the ion current measurements determined by the auxiliary ion detector.

An ion guide includes electrodes elongated along an axis from an entrance end to an exit end and spaced around the axis to surround an interior. The electrodes have polygonal shapes with inside surfaces disposed at a radius from the axis and having an electrode width tangential to a circle inscribed by the electrodes. An aspect ratio of the electrode width to the radius varies along the axis. The electrodes are configured to generate a two-dimensional RF electrical field in the interior having a multipole composition comprising one or more lower-order multipole components and one or more higher-order multipole components and varying along the axis in accordance with the varying aspect ratio, and having an RF voltage amplitude that varies along the axis.