Importance

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Abstract

Systems and methods for calculating ion flux. In one embodiment, a mass spectrometer includes an ion source for emitting a beam of ions from a sample through a plurality of pulses during an analysis period, and a detector positioned downstream of said ion source. A clock is provided which is configured to determine a repeatable series of bins, wherein each bin in the repeatable series will correspond to a corresponding pulse time segment in every pulse. Additionally a controller is provided which is operatively coupled to the detector and to the clock and configured to determine the total number of pulses during the analysis period. The controller is further configured to determine for at least one bin in the repeatable series, the number of corresponding pulse time segments in which no ion impact was detected during the analysis period. The controller is also configured to calculate the ion flux corresponding to the at least one bin and wherein said ion flux is calculated to be correlated to the probability of not detecting an ion impact during pulse time segments which correspond to the at least one bin in the repeatable series.

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First Claim