Enhancing Separation and Constriction of Ion Mobility Distributions in Drift Tubes at Atmospheric Pressure Using Varying Fields

Abstract

A linearly decreasing electric field has been previously proven to be effective for diffusional correction of ions in a varying field drift tube (VFDT) system, leading to higher resolving powers compared to a conventional drift tube due to its capacity to narrow distributions midflight. However, the theoretical predictions in resolving power of the VFDT were much higher than what was observed experimentally. The reason behind this discrepancy has been identified as the difference between the theoretically calculated resolving power (spatial) and the experimental one (time). To match the high spatial resolving power experimentally, a secondary high voltage pulse (HVP) at a properly adjusted time is used to provide the ions with enough momentum to increase their drift velocity and hence their time-resolving power. A series of systematic numerical simulations and experimental tests have been designed to corroborate our theoretical findings. The HVP-VFDT atmospheric pressure portable system improves the resolving power from the maximum expected of 60–80 for a regular drift tube to 250 in just 21 cm in length and 7kV, an unprecedent accomplishment.