This invention relates to tandem mass spectrometry. In particular, although not exclusively, this invention relates to tandem mass spectrometry using an ion trap to analyze and select precursor ions and a time-of-flight (TOF) analyzer to analyze fragment ions.
Structural elucidation of ionized molecules is often carried out using a tandem mass spectrometer, where a particular precursor ion is selected at the first stage of analysis or in the first mass analyzer (MS-1), the precursor ions are subjected to fragmentation (e.g. in a collision cell), and the resulting fragment (product) ions are transported for analysis in the second stage or second mass analyzer (MS-2). The method can be extended to provide fragmentation of a selected fragment, and so on, with analysis of the resulting fragments for each generation. This is typically referred to an MSn spectrometry, with n indicating the number of steps of mass analysis and the number of generations of ions. Accordingly, MS2 corresponds to two stages of mass analysis with two generations of ions analyzed (precursor and products).
Relevant types of tandem mass spectrometers include:
1. Sequential in space:
2. Sequential in time: ion traps such as Paul trap (see for example R. E. March and R. J. Hughes; Quadrupole Storage Mass Spectrometry, John Wiley, Chichester, 1989), Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT ICR—see for example A. G. Marshall and F. R. Verdum; Fourier transforms in NMR, Optical and Mass Spectrometry, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1990) radial-ejection linear trap mass spectrometer (LTMS—see for example M. E. Bier and J. E. Syka; U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,425), and axial-ejection linear trap mass spectrometer (see, for example, J. Hager US-A-6,177,668).
3. Sequential in Time and Space:
A number of non-sequential mass spectrometers suitable for tandem mass spectrometry have also been described (see for example J. T. Stults, C. G. Enke and J. F. Holland; Anal Chem., 55 (1983) 1323–1330 and R. Reinhold and A. V. Verentchikov; U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,109).
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,504,148 by J. W. Hager discloses a tandem mass spectrometer comprising a linear ion trap mass spectrometer, a trapping collision cell for ion fragmentation arranged axially, followed by a TOF mass analyzer.
PCT/WO01/15201 discloses a mass spectrometer comprising two or more ion traps and, optionally, a TOF mass analyzer, all arranged axially. The ion traps may function as collision cells and so the spectrometer is capable of MS/MS and MSn experiments.
Both of these spectrometers are standard in that they rely on axial ejection of ions from the ion trap to the collision cell and onwards to the time of flight analyzer. Both spectrometers also suffer from a problem that there is a conflict between speed of analysis (i.e. number of MS/MS experiments per second) and space-charge effects. To ensure sufficient numbers of fragmented ions are detected by the TOF mass analyzer to give sound experimental data, ever-increasing ion abundances must be stored upstream (particularly where more than one precursor ion is to be fragmented and analyzed). The need for high ion abundances upstream in the first analyzer is in conflict with the fact that the greater the ion abundance, the worse the resolution and accuracy of this analyzer because of space charge effects. For emerging high-throughput applications such as proteomics, it is important to provide unattainable yet speeds of analysis, on the order of hundreds of MS/MS spectra per second (as opposed to present limit of 5–15). This in its turn requires both efficient, space-charge tolerant utilisation of all incoming ions and fast, on the order of ms, analysis of each individual precursor m/z. Though time of flight analyzers on their own allow such speeds of analysis, all preceding parts of the system, namely ion trap and collision cell, should also match this so far unresolved challenge.
Against this background and from a first aspect, the present invention resides in a method of tandem mass spectrometry using a mass spectrometer comprising an ion source, an ion trap with a plurality of elongate electrodes, a collision cell and a time of flight analyzer, the method comprising trapping ions introduced from the ion source and exciting trapped ions thereby to eject trapped ions substantially orthogonally with respect to the direction of elongation of the electrodes such that the ejected ions travel to the collision cell; fragmenting ions introduced from the ion trap in the collision cell; ejecting fragmented ions from the collision cell such that they travel to the time of flight analyzer; and operating the time of flight mass analyzer to obtain a mass spectrum of ions therein.
Ejecting ions from the ion trap, that may be a linear ion trap, substantially orthogonally is a marked departure from the widely accepted norm of axial ejection for tandem analyzer configurations. The concept of orthogonal ejection has long been implicitly considered far inferior to axial ejection because ions ejected orthogonally have normally far greater beam size than their axial counterparts. This would thus require an innovative apparatus for capturing ions, fragmenting them and delivering to time of flight analyzer. A further disadvantage is the higher energy spread of resulting ion beams.
However, the Applicant has realised that far greater performance can be achieved using orthogonal ejection and this benefit can outweigh the disadvantage of large beam size and high-energy ejection. In particular, orthogonal ejection allows typically much higher ejection efficiencies, much higher scan rates, better control over ion population as well as higher space charge capacity. Moreover, the potential problem of the higher ejection energies may be mitigated by sending the ejected ions to the gas-filled collision cell where they will lose energy in the collisions that may lead to fragmentation.
By collision cell, we mean any volume used for fragmentation of ions. The collision cell may contain gas, electrons or photons for this purpose.
Preferably, the trapped ions are ejected as a ribbon beam from a linear ion trap into the collision cell. This allows an increase in the space charge capacity of the ion trap without compromising its performance or speed or efficiency of ejection. The collision cell preferably has a planar design to accommodate the ribbon beam. For example, the collision cell may be designed so that the guiding field it produces starts as essentially planar and then preferably focuses ions into a smaller aperture.
In a preferred embodiment, the collision cell comprises a plurality of elongate, composite rod electrodes having at least two parts, the method comprising applying an RF potential to both parts of each rod and applying a different DC potential to each part of each rod.
It should be noted that the plurality need not be all the rods within the collision cell. Moreover, the same or a different RF potential may be placed, and the same or a different DC potential may be placed on corresponding parts of the rods across the plurality. The method may also comprise applying a DC potential to a pair of electrodes that sandwich the composite rods.
In other embodiments, the collision cell comprises a set of electrodes with only DC voltages applied to them in order to provide an extracting field converging ions towards the exit aperture from the collision cell.
Preferably, the method comprises operating an ion detector located in or adjacent the ion trap to obtain a mass spectrum of the trapped ions. This may comprise operating the ion detector to obtain a mass spectrum of precursor ions trapped in the trapping region and operating the time of flight mass analyzer to obtain a mass spectrum of the fragmented ions, wherein the scans form a MS/MS experiment.
The ion detector is optionally positioned adjacent the ion trap thereby to intercept a portion of the ions being ejected substantially orthogonally. Conveniently, the ion detector and the collision cell may be positioned on opposing sides of the ion trap. Preferably, the method comprises introducing ions generated by an ion source having a relatively broad range of m/z (where m stands for the ion mass and z is the number of elementary charges, e, carried by the ion) values into the ion trap; trapping ions across substantially all the relatively broad range introduced from the ion source and ejecting ions within a relatively narrow range of m/z values substantially orthogonally.
In a currently preferred embodiment, the relatively broad range of m/z values is of the order of 200 Th to 2000 Th, or may alternatively be 400 to 4000 Th (Th: Thompson=1 amu/unit charge).
Optionally, the method comprises ejecting ions within a relatively narrow range of m/z values substantially orthogonally from the ion trap (second trapping region) whilst retaining other ions in the ion trap (second trapping region) for subsequent analysis and/or fragmentation.
Retaining ions of other m/z ranges in the ion trap while the relatively narrow m/z range is being ejected is advantageous as it allows the method optionally to comprise ejection, fragmentation and analysis of ions from the other relatively narrow m/z ranges without further filling of the second trapping region.
This may be useful as mass spectra of fragment ions from two or more different precursor ions may be collected rapidly, i.e. the method may optionally further comprise sequentially introducing fragment ions from the other narrow precursor ion m/z ranges into the time of flight mass analyzer and operating the time of flight mass analyzer to obtain a mass spectrum of the fragment ions associated with each precursor ion m/z range. Subsequent further layers of fragmentation and analysis may be preferred, e.g. to provide mass spectra for all precursor peaks.
The advantages gained with retaining ions whilst others are ejected may also be enjoyed with respect to the first trapping region of the composite ion trap. Hence, the method may further comprise retaining other ions not within the intermediate range of m/z values in the first trapping region when ejecting ions within the intermediate range. Preferably, substantially all ions not within the intermediate range of m/z values are retained.
Other optional features are defined in the appended claims.
From a second aspect, the present invention resides in a method of tandem mass spectrometry using a mass spectrometer comprising an ion source, an ion trap, a collision cell and a time of flight analyzer, the method comprising operating the ion source to generate ions having a relatively broad range of m/z values; introducing ions generated by the ion source into the ion trap; operating the ion trap to trap ions introduced from the ion source and to eject ions within a relatively narrow range of m/z values such that they are introduced into the collision cell whilst retaining other ions in the ion trap for subsequent analysis and/or fragmentation; operating the collision cell such that ions introduced from the ion trap are fragmented; introducing fragment ions from the collision cell into the time of flight analyzer; and operating the time of flight analyzer to obtain a mass spectrum of the fragmented ions.
From a third aspect, the present invention resides in a method of tandem mass spectrometry using a mass spectrometer comprising an ion source, a first trapping region, a second trapping region comprising a plurality of elongate electrodes, a collision cell, an ion detector and a time of flight analyzer. The method comprises a filling stage comprising operating the ion source to generate ions, introducing ions generated by the ion source into the first trapping region, and operating the first trapping region to trap a primary set of precursor ions introduced from the ion source, the primary set of precursor ions having a relatively large range of m/z values.
The method further comprises a first selection/analysis stage comprising operating the first trapping region to eject a first secondary subset of the primary set of precursor ions, the first secondary set of precursor ions having an intermediate range of m/z values, thereby to travel to the second trapping region while retaining other ions from the primary set of precursor ions in the first trapping region, operating the second trapping region to trap ions from the first secondary subset of precursor ions introduced from the first trapping region, operating the ion detector to obtain a mass spectrum of trapped ions from the first secondary subset of precursor ions, and performing a plurality of fragmentation/analysis stages of trapped ions from the first secondary subset of precursor ions.
The method further comprises a second selection/analysis stage comprising operating the first trapping region to eject a second secondary subset of the primary set of the precursor ions, the second secondary subset of precursor ions having a different intermediate range of m/z values, thereby to travel to the second trapping region, operating the second trapping region to trap ions from the second secondary subset of precursor ions introduced from the first trapping region, operating the TOF analyzer to obtain a mass spectrum of trapped ions from the second secondary subset of precursor ions, and performing a plurality of fragmentation/analysis stages of trapped ions from the second secondary subset of precursor ions.
Each of the respective plurality of fragmentation/analysis stages comprises operating the second trapping region to eject a tertiary subset of precursor ions with a relatively narrow range of m/z values substantially orthogonally with respect to the direction of elongation of the electrodes such that they are introduced into the collision cell, operating the collision cell such that ions from the tertiary subset of precursor ions ejected from the second trapping region are fragmented, introducing fragmented ions from the collision cell into the time of flight analyzer, and operating the time of flight mass analyzer to obtain a mass spectrum of the fragmented ions, wherein the tertiary subsets of precursor ions for each of the secondary subsets have different relatively narrow ranges of m/z values.
Clearly, the terms ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary’ refer to a structured hierarchy of precursor ions, i.e. each level refers to increasingly narrow ranges of m/z values, rather than successive stages of fragmentation. As such, fragmentation is only performed on tertiary sets of precursor ions.
This arrangement is advantageous as it allows MS/MS experiments to be performed rapidly as only one fill from the ion source is required. Moreover, dividing the precursor ions into increasingly narrow ranges of m/z values allows the ion capacity of the trapping regions and collision cell to be optimised within their space charge limits.
The method may contain three or more selection/analysis stages. Not all selection/analysis stages need include a plurality or indeed any fragmentation/analysis stages. For example, the mass spectrum obtained for a particular secondary subset of precursor ions may reveal only one or no peaks of interest, thereby removing the desire to fragment.
The tertiary subsets of precursor ions may be ejected from the second trapping region as pulses with temporal widths not exceeding 10 ms. Preferably, the temporal width does not exceed 5 ms, more preferably 2 ms, still more preferably 1 ms and most preferably 0.5 ms. Moreover, the fragmented ions may be ejected as pulses with temporal widths not exceeding 10 ms. Ever increasingly preferred maximum temporal widths of the pulses of fragmented ions are 5 ms, 2 ms, 1 ms and 0.5 ms. The pulses may push fragmentations directly into the time of flight mass analyzer from an exit segment of the collision cell. This paragraph also applies to the method using a single ion trap rather than the dual trapping regions.
However many tertiary subsets are chosen for a particular secondary subset, the associated relatively narrow ranges may be chosen to span the associated intermediate range of m/z values. These relatively narrow ranges may be implemented consecutively to step through the intermediate range. The mass spectrum required for each relatively narrow range may be stored and processed separately from the corresponding mass spectra. Suitable widths of the relatively narrow ranges may be determined by reference to a pre-scan, i.e. a mass spectrum or spectra previously acquired by the ion detector or time of flight mass analyzer that will contain peaks of interest. The subsequent mass spectra collected for fragments may be set to correspond to widths including one or more of these peaks. The operation of the mass spectrometer may also be tailored for each tertiary subset of precursor ions and the corresponding fragmented ions, i.e. operation of the second trapping region, collision cell and time of flight mass analyzer may be set specifically for the current relatively narrow range of m/z values. Again this paragraph may also apply to the method using a single ion trap rather than dual trapping regions.
From a fourth aspect, the present invention resides in a tandem mass spectrometer comprising an ion source, an ion trap, a collision cell and a time of flight mass analyzer, wherein the ion trap comprises plurality of elongate electrodes operable to provide a trapping field to trap ions introduced from the ion source and to excite trapped ions such that the excited ions are ejected from the ion trap substantially orthogonally to the direction of elongation of the electrodes; the collision cell is operable to accept ions ejected from the ion trap substantially orthogonally and to fragment accepted ions; and the time of flight mass analyzer is operable to acquire a mass spectrum of the fragmented ions.
The tandem mass spectrometer may further comprise an ion detector located adjacent to the ion trap and operative to detect ions ejected substantially orthogonally therefrom. The ion detector and the time of flight mass analyzer may be positioned on opposing sides of the ion trap.
Preferably, the collision cell is of a planar design.
From a fifth aspect, the present invention resides in a composite ion trap comprising first and second ion storage volumes being arranged substantially co-axially, the common axis defining an ion path through the first ion storage volume and into the second ion storage volume, the first ion storage volume being defined by an entrance electrode at one end and by a common electrode at the other end, the entrance electrode and the common electrode being operable to provide a trapping field for trapping ions in the first ion storage volume, the first ion storage volume further comprising one or more electrodes operable to excite trapped ions within a first m/z range such that the excited ions are ejected axially along the ion path into the second ion storage volume, the second ion storage volume being defined by the common electrode at one end and a further electrode at the other end, the common electrode and the further electrode being operable to provide a trapping field for trapping ions in the second ion storage volume, the second ion storage volume further comprising a plurality of elongate electrodes operable to excite trapped ions within a second m/z range such that the excited ions are ejected from the second ion storage volume substantially orthogonally to the direction of elongation through an exit aperture.
Preferably, the exit aperture is elongated in the same direction as the electrodes.
The person skilled in the art will appreciate that many of the advantages described with respect to the first and second aspects of the invention apply equally well to the composite ion trap, mass spectrometer and tandem mass spectrometers described above.
This invention may provide methods and apparatus implementing techniques for obtaining tandem mass spectrometry data for multiple parent ions in a single scan. In some embodiments, the invention features hybrid linear trap/time of flight mass spectrometers and methods of using such hybrid mass spectrometers. The hybrid mass spectrometers may include a linear trap, a collision cell/ion guide positioned to receive ions that are radially ejected from the linear trap, and a time-of-flight mass analyzer. In operation, ions may be accumulated in the linear trap, and may be ejected/extracted orthogonally such that at least a portion of the accumulated ions enter the collision cell, where they may undergo collisions with a target gas or gases. Resulting ions may exit the collision cell and may be transmitted to the time-of-flight mass analyzer for analysis. The hybrid mass spectrometers may be configured such that a full fragment spectrum can be acquired for each precursor ion even when scanning over the full mass range of the linear trap. This may be achieved by proper matching of time scales of TOF analysis and LTMS analysis as well as by orthogonal ejection of ions from the linear trap.
In some embodiments, the TOF mass analyzer may be of a type that has “multi-channel advantage” as well as sufficient dynamic range and acquisition speed. It is highly desirable the experiment to be done on a time scale appropriate to chromatography and, in particular, liquid chromatography. This means that acquisition of data defining a large area of the MS/MS data space can be acquired on the time scale on the order of <1–2 seconds, while each MS/MS spectrum might be limited by 1–2 ms time-frame.
The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the meaning commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. All publications, patent applications, patents, and other references mentioned herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. In case of conflict, the present specification, including definitions, will control. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings.
In the accompanying drawings:
a shows an array of electrodes akin to that of
One embodiment of a LTMS/TOF hybrid mass spectrometer according to one aspect of the invention is arranged as shown in
The spectrometer is enclosed within a vacuum chamber 120 that is evacuated by vacuum pumps indicated at 121 and 122.
One implementation of a method of using a hybrid mass spectrometer as shown in
The hybrid LTMS-TOF mass analyzer of
Other schemes are also possible. Above all, the instrument could be used for “traditional” ion trap type MSn experiments as well.
Embodiments of the collision cell/planar ion guide 50 will now be described with reference to
wherein k>0 for positive ions, x is the direction of ion ejection from LTMS 30, z is direction along the ejection slot in electrode 33 and y is directed across the slot, 2Y and 2Z are inner dimensions of collision cell electrodes 57 in y and z directions correspondingly (see
wherein 2× is a characteristic dimension commensurate with the height of the collision cell in x direction. It will be understood that numerous other embodiments could be presented, all following the same general idea. For example, some electrodes (e.g., 57a on
In any orientation or embodiment of the planar collision cell, collisional damping will cause ions to relax toward the central plane of the device and drift to the exit of the device according to the steering DC potentials. Gas pressure in the planar collision cell is to be chosen in a way similar to that in collision cells of triple quadrupoles and Q-TOFs, typically with a product of pressure and distance of travel in excess of 0.1 . . . 1 torr.mm.
It should be noted that the effective potential wells (m/z dependent) established by either the RF or DC field in the ion guide 50 will be rather flat-bottomed. Thus the ion beam will have a fairly large diameter at the exit of the collision cell/planar guide 50 (relative to that which would exit from a RF quadrupole operated similarly at similar gas pressures). An additional RF multipole (e.g. quadrupole) ion guide portion 55 of the collision cell 50 will allow for better radial focusing before extraction in to the TOF analyzer 70 (as shown in
The collision energy of the precursor ions in the collision cell/ion guide 50 is determined by the kinetic energy of the ions when they exit LTMS 30 and the voltage Vacc between LTMS 30 and collision cell/ion guide 50. Depending on the operating parameters for the LTMS 30, precursor ion energies of hundreds of eV's per charge can easily be obtained even for zero Vacc. However, for better acceptance of precursor ions, it may be preferable to lift (negatively for positive ions) the offset voltage of LTMS 30 after ions are captured inside it. In some embodiments, the amplitude of this “energy lift” is hundreds to thousands of Volts. For high qeject from the linear trap 30, the kinetic energy/unit charge of ejected ions is proportional to m/z, and thus Vacc may be programmed to change during the m/z scan of the LTMS 30 to control the collision energy as the m/z of the precursor ions is scanned (or stepped).
An advantageous feature of using a planar ion guide as the collision cell 50 is the capacity of the ion guide to accept ions input to it from different sides. This allows the collision cell 50 also to act as a beam merger. Moreover, it is known that a 2-D quadrupole linear ion trap has a greater ion storage capacity than a 3-D quadrupole ion trap. The slot in the rod 53 allows radial mass-selective ejection of ions for detection, but the slot length is limited by the physical nature of conventional detectors. The planar ion guides 50 described herein may be utilized to facilitate the employment of a longer 2-D quadrupole linear ion trap 30, having a longer than conventional slot, by allowing the ions that are radially ejected along the entire length of the slot to be focussed onto a conventional detector. A longer 2-D quadrupole linear ion trap 30 ultimately provides for still greater ion storage capacity.
In some implementations, a second reference ion source can be used to provide a stable source of ions of known m/z to the planar ion guide. If these reference ions are introduced to the collision cell 50 at sufficiently low kinetic energies, they will not fragment. These reference ions would mix with the beam of ions and their fragmentation products originating in the linear trap 30 and would provide an m/z internal calibrant for each and every TOF spectrum. In this way space charge capacity of the LTMS 30 does not need to be shared with reference ions. This enables more accurate m/z assignments in the production TOF spectra as there are always m/z peaks of precisely known m/z in each spectrum.
Description of the transport characteristics of a RF-only version of the planar ion guide 50 could be based on the general theory of inhomogeneous RF file devices outlined in D. Gerlich, State-Selected and State-to-State Ion-Molecule Reaction Dynamics, Part 1: Experiment, Ed. C. Ng, M. Baer, Adv. Chem. Phys Series, Vol. 82, John Wiley, Chichester, 1992, pp 1–176. For one particular device modelled, the effective potential well depth is in excess of 5 Volts from m/z 200 to m/z 1000. The “corrugation” (sinusoidal ripple) of the effective potential in the dimension perpendicular to the axes of the rod electrodes 53 increases from ca. 0.065 Volts at m/z 1000 to ca. 0.35 Volts at m/z 200. This means that the superimposed DC field (field sage) must be such that the DC field gradient in the same direction is on the order of 0.5 Volts/a (where a is the center-to-center distance between adjacent rods) or else ions will get “trapped” in the local minima of the effective potential “corrugation” wells.
In the circuitry shown in
In embodiments calling for successive “all mass” MS/MS experiments on a time scale suitable for chromatography, the maximum allowable interval between successive all mass MS/MS experiments should be on the order of about 1–2 seconds. This leads to a maximum precursor m/z scan rate on the order of 0.5–2 Th/msec, depending on how wide a precursor mass range needs to be scanned and how much time is allowed for ion accumulation in the LTMS 30 (this assumes the device is operated in the continuous precursor scanning mode, though the considerations are essentially the same for the stepped mode). A typical time frame for a single TOF experiment/acquisition is 100–200 microseconds. This imposes the lower limit on the required width in time of a precursor m/z peak of ca. 300–1500 microseconds (as would be measured at the exit of the collision cell/ion guide 50). This precursor m/z peak width (in time) is going to be determined by the convolution of the precursor m/z peak width (in time) of ions ejected from the LTMS 30 and the time distribution for associated precursor and fragment ions to transit though the planar ion guide/collision cell 50 (it should be noted that in the continuous precursor scanning mode, it is likely that there will need to be some correction in the precursor m/z calibration to correct for the mean time of flight of precursor ions and associated product ions through the collision cell/ion guide).
This creates some design flexibility as these times may be adjusted depending on various considerations such as:
In some embodiments, to facilitate efficient ion fragmentation in the collision cell, 50 the effective target thickness of gas, P×D, should be greater than 0.1 . . . 1 Torr×mm, where P is gas pressure, D is length of the collision cell 50. It may be desirable to have the time distribution for associated precursor and fragment ions to transit though the collision cell/planar ion guide 50 not more than 500–2000 microseconds. Such a distribution in exit time delays can be achieved if D is less than 30 . . . 50 mm which would require P to be greater than 20 . . . 30 mTorr (see for example C. Hoaglund-Hyzer, J. Li and D. E. Clemmer; Anal. Chem. 72 (2000) 2737–2740). A higher PXD product may be required to facilitate better cooling and capture of precursor ions and their associated fragmentation product ions. With such pressures in the collision cell/ion guide 50 it would necessitate an additional differential pumping stage between the collision cell 50 and the TOF analyzer 70. This can be achieved, for example, by evacuating lenses 60 by the same pump as LTMS 30, and having an additional pump to evacuate just the entrance to the collision cell 50 (between the envelope 51 and, for example, electrodes 53 or 56). The lenses 60 provide very precise transformation of the ion beam exiting the collision cell/ion guide 50 into a parallel beam with orthogonal energy spread of a few milliVolts. This lens region should be preferably maintained at pressure in or below 10–5 mbar range to avoid scattering, fragmentation and to minimize gas flow into the TOF analyzer chamber 80.
To improve sensitivity of the TOF analyzer 50 and thus quality of MS/MS spectra, its transmission and duty cycle need to be improved, for example by any of the following ways:
The embodiments described above can be improved for situations where the space charge capacity of LTMS 30 may otherwise become a crucial limitation. It is proposed to overcome this potential problem by using an additional ion storage device prior to the linear trap 30. This device is preferably a further linear trap. A particularly preferred arrangement is shown in
Here, the linear trap 30 is effectively split into two sections: a first, storage section 130, followed by a second, analytical section 230. These sections 130 and 230 are separated by an electrode 150 upon which a potential can be set to create a potential barrier to divide the linear trap 30 into the two sections 130, 230. This potential barrier need only provide a certain potential energy step to separate the storage sections and may be implemented using electric and/or magnetic fields. The storage section 130 captures incoming ions (preferably, continuously) and, at the same time, excites ions within intermediate mass range Δm/z (10–200 Th) to overcome the potential barrier separating the storage section 130 from the analytical section 230 for subsequent MS-only or MS/MS or MSn analysis over this range. By exciting ions within discrete mass ranges Δm/z that step through the entire mass range (e.g. 200 Th to 2000 Th), this allows use of all the space charge capacity of the analytical section 230 at each step Δm/z without sacrificing sensitivity, scanning speed or resolving power of the LTMS 30.
Though the m/z range stored in the storage section 130 is too wide for any useful information about ions due to space charge effects, the space charge admitted into the high-resolution linear trap analyzer in the analytical section 230 is reduced relative to the entire m/z range. Also, the two sections 130, 230 are synchronized in such a manner that for MS-only scan, the linear trap 30 always scans within the admitted mass range Δm/z, so there is no compromise for time of analysis.
In operation, a continuous stream of ions enters storage section 130 and reflects from the potential barrier separating the sections 130 and 230. The potential barrier is formed by a combination of DC and, optionally, RF fields. Ions in the storage section 130 lose kinetic energy in collisions with gas along the length of the storage section 130 and continuously store near the minimum of potential well. At the same time, an AC field is added to the potential barrier so that resonant axial oscillations of ions within a particular m/z range Δm/z are excited. This could be achieved, for example, by providing a quadratic DC potential distribution along the axis of storage section 130. Due to severe space charge effects and poor quality of the field, this intermediate m/z range Δm/z is much higher than 1 Th, preferably 5–10% of the total mass range. Also, AC excitation could span over the appropriate range of frequencies so that excitation is less dependent on the actual distortions of local fields.
After several tens or hundreds of excitation cycles, the majority of ions within the intermediate m/z range Δm/z are excited to such an extent that they are able to overcome the potential barrier (while still not able to escape through the entrance aperture of the storage selection 130). This allows the ions to enter the analytical section 230 where they are out of resonance with an AC field that exists therein, and the ions get stored in the middle part of this section 230 due to further loss of their energy in collisions with gas to reside in the minimum of the potential well. Then, an analytical MS-only or MS/MS or MSn scan is taken over the pre-selection mass range of the stored ions. After that, the process of filling from the storage section 130 is repeated for the next pre-selection m/z range, and so on until the total mass range is covered and the scans are thus completed. By the start of the next scans, the ion population within the storage section 130 is already completely renewed.
An example of operating a mass spectrometer including the composite linear trap 30 of
A typical space charge limit for unit resolving power of the linear trap is 30,000 charges and the ion intensity is distributed approximately uniformly over operating mass range of 2000 Th. Due to the high resolving power of TOFMS, higher ion populations (e.g. 300,000 charges) could be accepted. The scanning speed is 10,000 Th/s, and the input current is approximately 30,000,000 charges/s. AGC is used to estimate intensity distribution of ions and the linear trap 30 operates in MS-only mode.
With the conventional approach, the linear trap 30 would have been filled for 10 ms to reach the allowed space charge limit and the LTMS 30 would be scanned for 200 ms to cover the required mass range. Taking into account settling and AGC times, this results in about 4 spectra/sec or 1,200,000 charges analyzed per second to give a duty cycle of 4%.
With the proposed approach, all ions are being stored in the storage section 130 prior to analysis in the analytical section 230. After 300,000 charges are injected into the analytical section 230 within a m/z window of 100 Th over few ms, only 10 ms is needed to scan over this m/z window. The entire mass range is covered in a time slightly above 200 ms in 20 steps, each step containing 300,000 charges. The process could be run at a rate of about 4 spectra/sec if storage in 130 is accompanied by excitation, and about 2.5 spectra/sec, if storage and excitation are sequential in time. For the first case, 24,000,000 charges are analyzed per second to give a duty cycle of 80%, while for the second case 15,000,000 charges are analyzed per second resulting in a duty cycle of 50%.
Whilst narrower m/z windows Am could be used, overhead time consumption is, however, likely to limit further gains at a level of about 50·106 charges/second which is already close to the practical limit of modern electrospray sources.
A number of embodiments of the invention have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/456,569, filed Mar. 19, 2003.
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