Mapping the stability diagram of a digital ion trap (DIT) mass spectrometer varying the duty cycle of the trapping rectangular waveform.

In a digital ion trap the beta(r) and beta(z) boundary lines of the stability diagram are determined experimentally using an innovative approach. In the rectangular waveform-driven digital ion trap (DIT) manipulation of the waveform duty cycle allows introduction of a precisely defined DC quadrupole component into the main trapping field. Variation of the duty cycle can be controlled at software level without any hardware modification. The data generated use peptide ions, which produce stability diagrams in good agreement with the theoretical stability diagrams previously determined by simulation studies.