Dipole Excitation: A New Method for Mass Analysis with a Quadrupole Mass Filter.

Trajectory calculations are used to investigate peak shapes and ion transmission with a proposed new method of mass analysis with a quadrupole mass filter. Dipole excitation is applied to either the x or the y electrodes, or both, to create bands of instability within the first stability region. With excitation between the y electrodes (near β y  = 0), ions are removed from the low mass side of a peak, and with ion excitation in x (near β x  = 1), ions are removed from the high mass side.