Experimental adaptive optimization of mass spectrometer ion optic voltagesusing a genetic algorithm

We use a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize the mass resolution and detecti on efficiency of a multi-photon ionization, time-of-flight mass spectromete r. The algorithm uses experimental fitness functions to optimize eight volt ages supplied to a set of ion optics. The GA optimized the ion detection ef ficiency by a factor of 10 and the mass resolution by a factor of 11 over p revious settings obtained from computer simulations of the instrument. This experiment highlights the usefulness of adaptive algorithms to the experim ental optimization of multidimensional search problems commonly found in mo dern laboratories. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(99)0 4705-X].