Ion Optics - Waters Xevo TQ-S Operator's, Overview And Maintenance Manual

Ion optics

The mass spectrometer's ion optics operate as follows:
1. Samples from the LC or instrument's solvent delivery system are
introduced at atmospheric pressure into the ionization source.
2. The ions pass through the sample cone into the vacuum system.
3. The resulting ion beam passes through the source sampling orifice and,
in doing so, undergoes a certain amount of expansion.
4. The ion beam then passes into the entrance of the StepWave™ transfer
optics. The entrance is large enough to efficiently capture ions in the
expanded beam. The StepWave transfer optics comprise two stages. The
first stage (conjoined ion guide) focuses the ion beam and directs it to the
second stage (T-Wave™ ion guide). The off-axis design ensures that any
neutral materials entering the source sampling orifice are actively
extracted from the system.
5. The ions then pass to the first quadrupole, where they can be filtered
according to their mass-to-charge ratio (m/z).
6. The mass-separated ions pass into the T-Wave/ScanWave™ collision
cell, where they undergo collision-induced dissociation (CID), or pass to
the second quadrupole. Any fragment ions can then be mass-analyzed by
the second quadrupole.
7. The transmitted ions are detected by the photomultiplier detection
system.
8. The signal is amplified, digitized, and sent to the MassLynx mass
spectrometry software.
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