Tandem RF-only quadrupole mass filter with quadrupolar excitation

We report the computer simulation results of a tandem RF-only quadrupole mass filter. This mass filter consists of two short quadrupole rod sets, Q1 and Q2. The first quadrupole, Q1, is operated as a higher mass reject filter to remove lower q ions. The main filter, Q2, is a RF-only quadrupole, and it is used to give suitable narrow pass band on q axis. Quadrupole excitation by additional RF voltage leads to instability bands along q axis between q = 0 and q = 0.2, and this instability band can be used to remove low q ions with m = M0 − ∞ mass range. Quadrupole excitation creates a narrow pass band near q0 = 0.9080 in Q2. R0.1 = 1150 could be achieved at short separation time n = 40 in Q2.

Graphical abstractA powerful instability band located near β = ν = 1/10 is created with auxiliary low frequency quadrupole excitations to filter low q ions.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide