Systems and methods are provided for performing multiplex electrostatic linear ion trap mass spectrometry. A first beam of ions is received and the first beam is split into N beams of ions using a beam splitter. N is two or more. Ions are received from only one of the N beams of ions at each entrance aperture of N entrance apertures of an electrostatic linear ion trap (ELIT). Ions from each entrance aperture of the N entrance apertures are trapped in separate linear flight paths using the ELIT, producing N separate linear flight paths. Ion oscillations in the N separate linear flight paths are measured at substantially the same time using the ELIT. The ELIT uses two concentric mirrors with N apertures to trap ions in the N separate linear flight paths. The ELIT uses an image current detector with N apertures to the measure the ion oscillations.

Methods, apparatus, and storage medium for obtaining high-resolution mass spectra and chemical maps from a sample using a subspace Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FT-MS) approach are described. The method includes conducting a first set of image data corresponding to a first group of spatial positions on the sample and a second set of image data corresponding to a second group of spatial positions on the sample; conducting a decomposition process on the first set of image data to obtain a set of basis elements; performing a reconstruction process on a second set of image data to obtain a set of reconstructed image data; performing a Fourier transform on the first and second sets of image data to obtain a first and second sets of mass spectra, respectively; and obtaining a FT-MS image for the sample based on the first set of mass spectra and the second set of mass spectra.

A method of mass spectral analysis in an analytical electrostatic trap (14) is disclosed. The electrostatic trap (14) defines an electrostatic field volume and includes trap electrodes having static and non-ramped potentials. The method comprises injecting a continuous ion beam into the electrostatic field volume.

Disclosed embodiments include a time-of-flight mass spectrometer with a straight ion optical axis comprising: an ion gate is electrically insolated electrode on which applied voltages to reject/pass ions through ion gate, entrance module and exit module set in focus/mirror modes, and create ion optical image on image plane located in field view aperture, electrostatic object lens, entrance module in focus mode and, transport electrostatic lens, exit module in focus mode and projection lens focused and map ions from image plane of field view aperture to image plane of ion detector, projection lens configured to form ion optical image of sample holder on image plane of ion detector and ion optical components with corrected geometrical, chromatic and timed aberrations configured to compensate time arriving disturbance in image plane of ion detector and improve mass and spatial resolution of image on image plane of ion detector.

A high-voltage power source for applying high voltage to a nozzle of an ESI ion source includes a charge release assistant section (26) including switch circuits (62 and 65) and other elements for forcing electric charges accumulated at output terminals to be discharged in a polarity-switching operation, whereby the positive/negative switching of the polarity of the output voltage can be quickly performed. In the mass spectrometer according to the present invention, for example, when the voltage applied to the nozzle needs to be changed from Vi to V.sub.2 (where V.sub.1 and V.sub.2 are positive, and V.sub.1>V.sub.2), a voltage control section (20) under the command of a main controller (9) operates a positive voltage generation section (21) and negative voltage generation section (23) so as to temporarily provide a negative output voltage. After a predetermined period of time, the voltage control section operates the positive voltage generation section (21) and negative voltage generation section (23) so as to provide voltage V.sub.2. If the voltage was simply changed from V.sub.1 to V.sub.2, the voltage would decrease slowly and require considerable time for the change. The positive/negative switching of the polarity induces the discharging of the electric charges accumulated at the output terminals, and consequently, the voltage-switching operation from V.sub.1 to V.sub.2 is quickly performed.

A miniature electrode apparatus is disclosed for trapping charged particles, the apparatus including, along a longitudinal direction: a first end cap electrode; a central electrode having an aperture; and a second end cap electrode. The aperture is elongated in the lateral plane and extends through the central electrode along the longitudinal direction and the central electrode surrounds the aperture in a lateral plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction to define a transverse cavity for trapping charged particles.

An instrument for separating ions may include an ion source configured to generate ions from a sample, at least one ion separation instrument configured to separate the generated ions as a function of at least one molecular characteristic and an electrostatic linear ion trap (ELIT) positioned to receive ions exiting the at least one ion separation instrument. The ELIT has first and second ion mirrors separated by a charge detection cylinder, and is configured such that an ion trapped therein oscillates back and forth through the charge detection cylinder between the first and second ion mirrors with a duty cycle, corresponding to a ratio of time spent by the trapped ion traversing the charge detection cylinder and total time spent by the trapped ion traversing a combination of the first and second ion mirrors and the charge detection cylinder during one complete oscillation cycle, of approximately 50%.

A CDMS may include an ELIT having a charge detection cylinder (CD), a charge generator for generating a high frequency charge (HFC), a charge sensitive preamplifier (CP) having an input coupled to the CD and an output configured to produce a charge detection signal (CHD) in response to a charge induced on the CD, and a processor configured to (a) control the charge generator to induce an HFC on the CD, (b) control operation of the ELIT to cause a trapped ion to oscillate back and forth through the CD each time inducing a charge thereon, and (c) process CHD to (i) determine a gain factor as a function of the HFC induced on the CD, and (ii) modify a magnitude of the portion of CHD resulting from the charge induced on the CD by the trapped ion passing therethrough as a function of the gain factor.

An improved multi-pass time-of-flight or electrostatic trap mass spectrometer (70) with an orthogonal accelerator, applicable to mirror based multi-reflecting (MR) or multi-turn (MT) analyzers. The orthogonal accelerator (64) is tilted and after first ion reflection or turn the ion packets are back deflected with a compensated deflector (40) by the same angle α to compensate for the time-front steering and for the chromatic angular spreads. The focal distance of deflector (40) is control by Matsuda plates or other means for producing quadrupolar field in the deflector. Interference with the detector rim is improved with dual deflector (68). The proposed improvements allow substantial extension of flight path and number of ion turns or reflections. The problems of analyzer angular misalignments by tilting of ion mirror (71) is compensated by electrical adjustments of ion beam (63) energy and deflection angles in deflectors (40) and (68).

There is provided a method of identifying spurious peaks in a mass spectrum produced from a time-varying transient signal detected in a mass spectrometer. The method comprises the steps of generating, using a regularized inversion algorithm having one or more adjustable parameters, a first mass spectrum from the time-varying transient signal, according to a first set of values of said one or more adjustable parameters. Generating, using the regularized inversion algorithm, one or more perturbed mass spectra from the transient signal, according to one or more respective perturbed versions of the first set of values. Identifying one or more spurious peaks in the first mass spectrum by comparing the first mass spectrum with at least one of the perturbed mass spectra. There are also provided corresponding systems and computer readable media.