Linear ion trap
The linear ion trap (LIT) is a type of ion trap mass spectrometer. In a linear ion trap, ions are confined radially by a two-dimensional radio frequency (RF) field, and axially by stopping potentials applied to end electrodes. Linear ion traps have high injection efficiencies and high ion storage capacities.
History
One of the first linear traps was constructed in 1969, by Church who bent linear quadrupoles into closed circle and racetrack geometries and demonstrated storage of 3He+ and H+ ions for several minutes. Earlier, Drees and Paul described a circular quadrupole. However, it was used to produce and confine a plasma, not to store ions. In 1989, Prestage, Dick, and Malecki described that ions could be trapped in the linear quadrupole trap system to enhance ion-molecule reactions, thus it can be used to study spectroscopy of stored ions.
How it works
The linear ion trap uses a set of quadrupole rods to confine ions radially and a static electrical potential on the end electrodes to confine the ions axially. The linear ion trap can be used as a mass filter or as a trap by creating a potential well for the ions along the axis of the trap.
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