Digitally driven mass filter analysis is an advancing field. This work presents a tutorial of digital waveforms, stability diagrams, and pseudopotential well plots. Experimental results on digitally driven mass filter analysis in stability zones A and B are also shown. This work explains duty cycle manipulation of the waveforms to axially trap and eject ions from linear quadrupoles and how to change and distort the stability diagrams to create mass filters and their effects on the pseudopotential well depth. It discusses the sensitivity and resolution that can be obtained and what limits these benchmarks. It reveals the advantages of mass filter operation without any added direct current potential between the quadrupole electrodes (a = 0).
Keywords: digital mass filter; pseudopotential plots; stability diagrams; stability zone A; stability zone B.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.