Characterizing the transmission properties of an ion funnel

Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2000;14(22):2129-34. doi: 10.1002/1097-0231(20001130)14:22<2129::AID-RCM144>3.0.CO;2-M.

Abstract

The characteristic features of ion transmission properties in a radio-frequency (RF) electric-field driven ion funnel using the SIMION ion trajectory simulation package is presented. A user program applying the Douglas ion-neutral collisional drag coefficient model is incorporated to properly account for the ion focusing and transport effect of the background gas under the effect of the driving RF and a superimposed DC field. The simulated m/z transmission window compares favorably with the experimental results reported by Smith et al. RF amplitude and pressure dependence of experimentally observed m/z transmission windows are also examined, and an approximated effective potential model based on Gerlich's equation is proposed to interpret the low-m/z cutoff behavior. A modified ion funnel configuration is described.