An Improvement on Space Focusing Resolution in Two-Field Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometers

Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (TOFMS) is a sophisticated device for the mass selective analysis of a variety of samples. The main limitation on TOFMS technique is the obtainable resolution where the two main limiting factors are the initial space and energy spread of particles created in ionization region. Similar charged particles starting at different points will reach the detector at different times. So, this problem makes space focusing is very important subject. We have presented principles of two-fields TOFMS with second-order space focusing both using analytical methods and ray-tracing simulation. This work aims understanding of ion optical system clearly and gives hint of expectation for future developments.