Electrostatic or electromagnetic device used to generate pulses of ions from a continuous
ion beam.
Note: The beam chopper can be used to define the pulse length and hence the mass resolution in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer and it can also be used to select particular ions in a beam that contains more than one species.
See also: beam bunching
Source:
PAC, 2020, 92, 1781. 'Glossary of methods and terms used in surface chemical analysis (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)' on page 1832 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0404)