Deconvolution of kinetic‐energy release signals from singly, doubly, and triply charged metastable ions

A new geometric model has been developed and applied to the deconvolution of ion kinetic‐energy release signals observed from fragmentation of metastable ions in the second field‐free region of a reversed geometry mass spectrometer. The model takes account of: (i), fragmentations occurring throughout the entire length of the field‐free region; (ii), the difference in ion beam intensity before and after the intermediate slit; (iii), the slight difference in angular acceptance between backward‐ and forward‐scattered product ions; (iv), fragmentations of singly and multiply charged ions; and (v), ion kinetic‐energy releases of any magnitude. Several examples of metastable peaks are given together with the associated kinetic‐energy release distribution and the theoretical metastable peak generated from the kinetic‐energy release distribution.