Fig. 6: Time-of-flight discrimination of trapped negative species.

ToF discrimination for negative species showing \({{{{{{\rm{e}}}}}}}^{{{{{{\boldsymbol{-}}}}}}}\), \({{{{{{\rm{H}}}}}}}^{{{{{{\boldsymbol{-}}}}}}}\) and \({{{{{{\rm{Li}}}}}}}^{{{{{{\boldsymbol{-}}}}}}}\) (or \({{{{{{\rm{LiH}}}}}}}^{{{{{{\boldsymbol{-}}}}}}}\)) in the same trapping conditions and manipulations as in Fig. 5 but now doing a quick ramp down from the trap with E1 = -10 V, E2 = −5 V, E3 = 0 V, E4 = −2 V to an acceleration ramp with E1 = −10 V, E2 = −5 V, E3 = −0.2 V, E4 = −0.1 V and E5 = 0 V. The experimental data from an accumulation of 21 runs is shown in blue while a simulated histogram for the species identified is shown with a red envelope. In this figure, t = 0 is the beginning of the dump, taken as instantaneous in the simulation but lasting over 1.2 µs. The ablation laser energy was considerably decreased to avoid saturation of the CEM with the \({{{{{{\rm{e}}}}}}}^{{{{{{\boldsymbol{-}}}}}}}\) signal. See section Results for more discussion and Methods for the simulation.