Imaging mass spectrometer

Abstract

A time-of-flight mass spectrometer is disclosed and comprises ion optics that map an array of ions at an ion source array (71) to a corresponding array of positions on a position sensitive ion detector (79). The ion optics include at least one gridless ion mirror (76) for reflecting ions, which may compensate for various aberrations and allows the spectrometer to have relatively high mass and spatial resolutions.

Description

[0001] Cross References to Related Applications [0002] This application claims priority to and benefit of UK Patent Application No. 1520130.4 filed 16 November 2015. The entire content of this application is incorporated herein by reference. technical field [0003] The present invention relates to the field of mass spectrometry and, in particular, to multi-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometers with folded ion paths. Background technique [0004] It is known to perform surface imaging or analysis of multiple sample spots by scanning a laser beam on a sample plate to introduce ions at the optical axis of a mass spectrometer. For example, multi-spot sample plates have been used for MALDI or DE-MALDI analysis. [0005] It is also known to image a sample by a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer comprising an electrical sector, eg in US 5128543 . These analyzers typically image small sample regions in a manner that provides point-to-point imaging by illuminating th...

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Problems solved by technology

[0006] However, these electric sector-based TOF instruments suffer from low-order time-of-flight and spatial focusing aberrations, and have multiple second-order aberrations that are not compensated

For example, due to the third-order spatial aberration and the second-order TOF chromatic aberration, sector-based imaging TOF mass spectrometers can only be applied to the microscopic analysis of surfaces in cases where the analyzed ions have a small energy spread, otherwise, the mass Resolution suffers from large TOF chromatic aberration

Furthermore, multi-sector TOF mass spectrometers are not suitable for analyzing large fields of view due to their large spatial third-order aberrations mainly due to fringing field effects in electrostatic sector fields

As such, these systems do not provide high mass resolution and are not well suited for imaging relatively large fields of view (e.g., greater than 1mm)

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