Mass-analyzed ion-kinetic-energy spectrometry (MIKES) is a mass spectrometry

Mass spectrometry

Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles.It is used for determining masses of particles, for determining the elemental composition of a sample or molecule, and for elucidating the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and...

 technique by which mass spectra are obtained from a sector instrument

Sector instrument

A sector instrument is a general term for a class of mass spectrometer that uses a static electric or magnetic sector or some combination of the two as a mass analyzer. A popular combination of these sectors has been the BEB...

 that incorporates at least one magnetic sector plus one electric sector in reverse geometry (the beam first enters the magnetic sector). The accelerating voltage

Voltage

Voltage, otherwise known as electrical potential difference or electric tension is the difference in electric potential between two points — or the difference in electric potential energy per unit charge between two points...

 V, and the magnetic field

Magnetic field

A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...

 B, are set to select the precursor ions of a particular m/z. The precursor ions then dissociate or react in an electric field

Electric field

In physics, an electric field surrounds electrically charged particles and time-varying magnetic fields. The electric field depicts the force exerted on other electrically charged objects by the electrically charged particle the field is surrounding...

-free region between the two sectors. The ratio of the kinetic energy

Kinetic energy

The kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion.It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes...

to charge of the product ions are analyzed by scanning the electric sector field E. The width of the product ion spectrum peaks is related to the kinetic energy release distribution for the dissociation process.