Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) is well-renowned for its ultrahigh resolving power and mass measurement accuracy. As with other types of analytical instrumentation, achievable signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) is an important analytical figure of merit with FTICR-MS. S/N can be improved with higher magnetic fields and longer time-domain signal acquisition periods. However, serial signal averaging of spectra or time-domain signals acquired with multiple ion populations is most commonly used to improve S/N. On the other hand, serial acquisition and averaging of multiple scans significantly increases required data acquisition time and is often incompatible with on-line chromatographic separations. In this study, we investigated the potential for increased S/N by averaging 4 spectra that were acquired in parallel with a single ICR cell with 4 pairs of dipole detection electrodes, each with an independent pre-amplifier. This spectral averaging was achieved with no need for multiple ion accumulation events nor multiple, serial excitation and detection events. These efforts demonstrated that parallel signal acquisition with 4 detector electrode pairs produces S/N 1.76-fold higher than that from a single detection electrode pair. With parallel detection, improved S/N was achieved with no observable loss in resolving power (100,000) as compared with that from a single detection electrode pair. These results demonstrate that parallel detection of multiple induced image current signals with multiple preamplifiers exists as a viable option for future instrumentation to increase achievable S/N and sensitivity. This approach may have general utility especially where conventional serial signal averaging is impractical.

中文翻译：

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在单个 ICR 单元中进行并行检测：在不增加采集时间的情况下实现频谱平均和改进的 S/N

傅里叶变换离子回旋共振质谱 (FTICR-MS) 以其超高的分辨率和质量测量精度而闻名。与其他类型的分析仪器一样，可实现的信噪比 (S/N) 是 FTICR-MS 的重要分析品质因数。更高的磁场和更长的时域信号采集周期可以提高 S/N。然而，使用多个离子群获得的光谱或时域信号的串行信号平均最常用于提高 S/N。另一方面，多次扫描的串行采集和平均显着增加了所需的数据采集时间，并且通常与在线色谱分离不兼容。在这项研究中，我们通过平均 4 个光谱来研究增加 S/N 的潜力，这些光谱与具有 4 对偶极检测电极的单个 ICR 池并行采集，每个偶极检测电极都有一个独立的前置放大器。这种光谱平均是在不需要多个离子积累事件或多个连续激发和检测事件的情况下实现的。这些努力表明，4 个检测器电极对的并行信号采集产生的 S/N 比单个检测电极对高 1.76 倍。与单个检测电极对相比，并行检测实现了改进的 S/N，而分辨能力 (100,000) 没有可观察到的损失。这些结果表明，使用多个前置放大器并行检测多个感应镜像电流信号是未来仪器增加可实现 S/N 和灵敏度的可行选择。这种方法可能具有普遍效用，尤其是在传统串行信号平均不切实际的情况下。