Mass-to-charge ratio
The mass-to-charge ratio (m/Q) is a physical quantity that is most widely used in the electrodynamics of charged particles, e.g. in electron optics and ion optics. It appears in the scientific fields of electron microscopy, cathode ray tubes, accelerator physics, nuclear physics, Auger electron spectroscopy, cosmology and mass spectrometry. The importance of the mass-to-charge ratio, according to classical electrodynamics, is that two particles with the same mass-to-charge ratio move in the same path in a vacuum when subjected to the same electric and magnetic fields. Its SI units are kg/C. In rare occasions the thomson has been used as its unit in the field of mass spectrometry.
Some fields use the charge-to-mass ratio (Q/m) instead, which is the multiplicative inverse of the mass-to-charge ratio. The 2014 CODATA recommended value for an electron is e⁄me = 1.758820024(11)×1011 C/kg.
When charged particles move in electric and magnetic fields the following two laws apply:
where F is the force applied to the ion, m is the mass of the particle, a is the acceleration, Q is the electric charge, E is the electric field, and v × B is the cross product of the ion's velocity and the magnetic flux density.
...
Wikipedia