Coulomb dynamics of ion bunches in multi-reflection electrostatic traps

The problem of Coulomb effects is of crucial importance in the high-resolution time-of-flight mass-spectrometry, especially for the multi-reflection ion traps operating under the isochronism conditions. It is shown that the self-bunching and coalescence effects in the ion traps considered arise from the resonant Coulomb repulsion between the ions of equal or close masses. Based on the perturbation methods, a special computational technique is constructed to study these exceedingly sophisticated effects numerically. Some simulation results for a two-mirror ion trap are presented and discussed. The mechanism of the self-bunching and coalescence effects is qualitatively demonstrated using a 1D model that allows an analytical solution. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.