Research on double resonant excitation in a triangular electrode ion trap with asymmetric geometry

Rationale The triangular electrode linear ion trap with asymmetric geometry has been reported to possess a high ion unidirectional ejection efficiency and a reasonable mass resolution. To further improve its performance, a double resonant excitation method involving a dipolar and a quadrupolar resonant excitation was applied here. Methods The dipolar excitation method was carried out by applying a supplementary alternating voltage out of phase to one pair of the electrodes, whereas the quadrupolar excitation (QE) method was carried out by adding a supplementary alternating voltage in phase to another pair of electrodes. Numerical simulations were performed to explore the impact of the frequency difference between the alternating current (AC) and the QE voltage (∆ ω ), the frequency of the AC voltage ( ω AC ), and the QE voltage amplitude ( V QE ). Results The mass resolution could be improved to ~4700 , which was approximately twice compared to that with only dipolar resonant excitation, and the ion unidirectional ejection efficiency could be improved to 97%. Even with a high scan rate of 6000 Da/s, there was minimal loss of mass resolution caused by increased scan rate in double resonant excitation mode. Conclusions By employing the double resonant excitation method, the mass resolution could be further increased while maintaining a considerably high ion unidirectional ejection efficiency, which might be a simple and practical approach for developing a high‐performance miniature ion trap mass analyzer.