| CPC H01J 49/421 (2013.01) [H01J 49/062 (2013.01); H01J 49/4265 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A method of operating an analytical instrument that comprises a first ion store and a second ion store arranged downstream of the first ion store, the method comprising:
determining whether a target accumulation time for the second ion store is greater than a threshold accumulation time;
when it is determined that the target accumulation time is less than the threshold accumulation time: accumulating ions within the second ion store using an accumulation time based on the target accumulation time; and
when it is determined that the target accumulation time is greater than the threshold accumulation time: accumulating ions within the first ion store using a first accumulation time based on a difference between the target accumulation time and the threshold accumulation time, passing the ions accumulated in the first ion store to the second ion store, and accumulating further ions within the second ion store using a second accumulation time based on the threshold accumulation time.
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