In 1886, Eugen Goldstein observed rays in gas discharges under low pressure that traveled away from the anode and through channels in a perforated cathode, opposite to the direction of negatively charged cathode rays (which … See more

The ion source is the part of the mass spectrometer that ionizes the material under analysis (the analyte). The ions are then transported by magnetic or electric fields to … See more

The final element of the mass spectrometer is the detector. The detector records either the charge induced or the current produced when an ion passes by or hits a surface. In a scanning instrument, the signal produced in the detector during the course of the … See more

A mass spectrometer consists of three components: an ion source, a mass analyzer, and a detector. The ionizer converts a portion of the sample into ions. There is a wide variety of ionization techniques, depending on the phase (solid, liquid, gas) of … See more

Mass analyzers separate the ions according to their mass-to-charge ratio. The following two laws govern the dynamics of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields in vacuum:
(Lorentz force law);
(Newton's second … See more

A tandem mass spectrometer is one capable of multiple rounds of mass spectrometry, usually separated by some form of molecule … See more

When a specific combination of source, analyzer, and detector becomes conventional in practice, a compound acronym may arise to designate it succinctly. One example is MALDI-TOF, which refers to a combination of a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization See more