Development of a New High Resolution Reflectron Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer

ime-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer is being developed since Wiley & McLaren has presented this experimental technique of measuring the mass of low energy ions and devised the first spectrometer back in 1955 [1]. However, the instrumentation of time-of-fight mass spectrometry has been under continuous progress by adapting with the technological advancements in the other fields of science, e.g. in vacuum science, fast switching of DC high voltage, lasers, high speed data acquisition electronics, high gain sophisticated ion detectors etc. In fact, advances in the instrumentation of time-of-flight mass spectrometry has recently taken a leap forward in view of its new found applications in the mass sampling of large molecular and ionic species e.g. proteins, peptides, polymers and atomic clusters etc [2-6]. The accuracy of mass determination and the capacity of handling a wide variety of unknown masses together from a complex sample like atomic clusters, bio-molecules, polymers etc. require improved machine that has high resolution and dynamic range which are in fact the functions of specific design parameters. Nevertheless, the development of a state-of-theart machine still remains a challenge specially, for devising a high mass range spectrometer with large dynamic capacity.