In an ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer in which ions are trapped
axially by applying electrical potentials to a pattern of electrode
elements to produce an inhomogeneous alternating radio-frequency electric
field with a repulsive effect, an additional electrostatic ion-attracting
field is superimposed on the repulsive electric field. The voltage of the
ion-attracting field is adjusted to compensate for a cyclotron frequency
shift of the ions caused by the ion space charge. The voltage of the
ion-attracting field can be adjusted so that the ion cyclotron frequency
of all ions becomes independent of the number of ions inside the
spectrometer.