Plasma-based electron capture dissociation (ecd) apparatus and related systems and methods

摘要

An electron capture dissociation (ECD) apparatus (100; 200; 400; 500; 600; 806; 906; 1006; 1106, 1206; 1306) includes a plasma source (102; 202; 402; 502) for generating plasma. Analyte ions are exposed to the plasma in an ECD interaction region (110; 210; 410; 510), either inside or outside the plasma source. The apparatus may include one or more devices for refining the plasma in preparation for interaction with the analyte ions. Refining may entail removing unwanted species from the plasma, such as photons, metastable particles, neutral particles, and/or high-energy electrons unsuitable for ECD, and/or controlling a density of low-energy electrons in the plasma.