Time-of-Flight Mass Analyzer

Abstract

The paper presents a brief overview of the time-of-flight mass analyzer and its implementation in mass spectrometry. Fundamental concepts, properties and equations are explained. Various configurations of time-of-flight analyzer are described, including the linear arrangement, reflector and orthogonal time-of-flight. Delayed extraction and its influence on resolution improvement is explained. The text also mentions metastable ions, influence of the vacuum, mass calibration and some alternative concepts in time-of-flight mass spectrometry.