A tandem time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer

A tandem time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer Incorporating a fast atom bombardment source has been designed and constructed for the purpose of studying collision‐induced decomposition spectra. A deflection of the secondary ion beam is used to form the ion packets for time‐of‐flight analysis. A floating collision cell that represents a potential barrier to ions transversing the time‐of‐fiight tube enables ionic and neutral fragments from collision‐induced decomposition reactions to be separated in time from the parent ion. The instrument operating in the tandem mode is capable of performing charge exchange and collision‐induced decomposition studies of both positive and negative incident ions.