A charge detection mass spectrometer (CDMS) includes an electrostatic linear ion trap (ELIT), a processor, and a memory having instructions stored therein executable by the processor to (a) control the ELIT to trap an ion, (b) collect ion measurement information as the trapped ion oscillates back and forth through the ELIT, the ion measurement information including charge induced by the ion on a charge detector of the ELIT during each pass of the ion through the ELIT and timing of the induced charges relative to one another, (c) process the ion measurement information in the time-domain for each of a plurality of sequential time windows of the ion measurement information to determine a charge magnitude of the ion during each time window, and (d) determine the magnitude of charge of the trapped ion based on the charge magnitudes of each of the time windows.

The present disclosure relates to an integrated package having an active area, an electrical routing circuit, an optical routing circuit, and a vacuum vessel. Methods of making such a package are also described herein.

A mass spectrometer may have an ion source region including an ion generator configured to generate ions from a sample, an ion detector configured to detect ions and produce corresponding ion detection signals, an electric field-free drift region disposed between the ion source region and the ion detector through which the generated ions drift axially toward the ion detector, a plurality of spaced-apart charge detection cylinders disposed in the drift region and through which the ions drifting axially through the drift region pass, and a plurality of charge amplifiers each coupled to a different one of the plurality of charge detection cylinders and each configured to produce a charge detection signal corresponding to a magnitude of charge of one or more of the generated ions passing through a respective one of the plurality of charge detection cylinders.

The invention relates to a mass spectrometer, a mass spectrometry method and a detection system. The mass spectrometer includes a vacuum chamber having a working pressure being 0.1 Pa≤P≤10 Pa; a linear ion trap, arranged in the vacuum chamber, wherein a field radius r of the linear ion trap is r≤5 mm; and a power supply, configured to provide a radio-frequency voltage for the linear ion trap, a frequency f of the radio-frequency voltage being 2 MHz≤f≤10 MHz. Because a vacuum level is relatively low, this vacuum condition may be realized by selecting a roughing pump for evacuating; and compared with a combined pump unit which is generally selected by a traditional mass spectrometer using the linear ion trap and is composed of a turbo molecular pump and a roughing pump, the roughing pump has a lower pumping speed, smaller size and lower manufacturing cost.

Systems and methods for loading microfabricated ion traps are disclosed. Photo-ablation via an ablation pulse is used to generate a flow of atoms from a source material, where the flow is predominantly populated with neutral atoms. As the neutral atoms flow toward the ion trap, two-photon photo-ionization is used to selectively ionize a specific isotope contained in the atom flow. The velocity of the liberated atoms, atom-generation rate, and/or heat load of the source material is controlled by controlling the fluence of the ablation pulse to provide high ion-trapping probability while simultaneously mitigating generation of heat in the ion-trapping system that can preclude cryogenic operation. In some embodiments, the source material is held within an ablation oven comprising an electrically conductive housing that is configured to restrict the flow of agglomerated neutral atoms generated during photo-ablation toward the ion trap.

A method of introducing and ejecting ions from an ion entry/exit device (4) is disclosed. The ion entry/exit device (4) has at least two arrays of electrodes (20,22). The device is operated in a first mode wherein DC potentials are successively applied to successive electrodes of at least one of the electrode arrays ((20,22) in a first direction such that a potential barrier moves along the at least one array in the first direction and drives ions into and/or out of the device in the first direction. The device is also operated in a second mode, wherein DC potentials are successively applied to successive electrodes of at least one of the electrode arrays (20,22) in a second, different direction such that a potential barrier moves along the array in the second direction and drives ions into and/or out of the device in the second direction. The device provides a single, relatively simple device for manipulating ions in multiple directions. For example, the device may be used to load ions into or eject ions from an ion mobility separator in a first direction, and may then be used to cause ions to move through the ion mobility separator in the second direction so as to cause the ions to separate.

An ion confinement device (2) comprising: a plurality of electrodes arranged and configured for confining ions when an AC or RF voltage is applied thereto; and at least one inductive ballast (10a,10b), each ballast connected to at least some of said electrodes so as to form a resonator circuit therewith.

The use of multiple ion chains in a single ion trap for quantum information processing (QIP) systems is described. Each chain can have its own set of laser beams with which to implement and operate quantum gates within that chain, where each chain may therefore correspond to a single quantum computing register or core. Operations can be performed in parallel across all of these chains as they can be treated independently from each other. To implement and operate quantum gates between different chains, neighboring chains are merged into a single, larger chain, in which one can perform quantum gates between any of the ions in the larger chain. The combined chains can then be separated again by another shuttling event as needed. To implement and operate quantum gates between ions which do not occupy neighboring chains, swap gates can be used via a sequence of intervening chains.

A multi-atomic object crystal is transported from a first leg to a second leg of an atomic object confinement apparatus through a corresponding junction. Voltage sources in electrical communication with electrodes of the apparatus are controlled to confine the crystal in the first leg. The voltage sources are controlled to cause transport of the crystal along the first leg to proximate the junction and then to cause generation of a time-dependent potential at the junction that is configured to cause the crystal to traverse a transport path through the junction from the first leg to the second leg via a dynamic potential well defining a particular variable axial frequency. The transport path is determined by combining a path of constant total confinement for a representative atomic object of the crystal and a path of radio frequency minimum for the representative atomic object, using a particular variable path ratio.

An interposer is described that is made from an electrically insulating, thermally efficient substrate (e.g., sapphire) and has a load hole for use with ion traps in atomic-based QIP architectures. The interposer load hole aligns with a load hole in the ion trap such that atomic species can be provided from the back of the interposer to the front of the ion trap for ionization and confinement. The interposer may include angled traces for wire bonding to the ion trap, where the angled traces enable more open light access when using laser or optical beams during operation of the ion trap. Electrical routing in the interposer may involve more than one layer of routing, separated by an insulating dielectric material such as a polyimide. Routing in the interposer may also contain active electronic components. The load hole in the interposer may have a straight or tapered inner wall.