Low-Vacuum Quadrupole Mass Filter Using a Drift Gas

Performing mass spectrometry in a low-vacuum environment can markedly reduce the cost, size, and power consumption of instrumentation by reducing the workload of the pumping system. Under a low-vacuum environment, ions in a quadrupole mass filter do not have sufficient kinetic energy in the axial direction to reach the detector for mass analysis. To resolve this problem and develop a mass spectrometer suitable for a low-vacuum environment, a mass analysis method is proposed where a drift gas is used to supply energy to the ions. A simulation model was constructed in COMSOL Multiphysics, and a simple experimental device was built to validate the proposed method. The simulation results showed that this method effectively solves these problems, and the obtained spectral peak was superior to that without drift gas flow regarding spectral peak intensity and width. The experimental results showed that the proposed method separated ions with different mass-to-charge ratios at a pressure of 20 Pa. This work provides a theoretical foundation for the development of low-vacuum mass spectrometry, which will promote portability, provide a lower threshold of use, and expand the fields of application for mass spectrometers.