present invention the technique of reflectometry bunching can be achieved within the device by providing a repelling field in front of the ions we seek to bunch this field may be timed to affect only a range of ion species in reflectometry faster ions of the same mass take longer to reflect back from a repelling field than slower ions and so travel a longer path which gives the slower ions more quickly reflected a head start in the reflected path the faster ions overtake the slower ions at some point in the reflected path reflectometry focuses the ions in time reducing the individual species spread for tof measurements referring now to fig9 the ability to produce a traveling wave allows the generation of a cyclic axially inhomogeneous field chamber in which a traveling wave 60 circulates indefinitely the acceleration of particles 14 along a circular axis 16 u2032 is enforced by a radially increasing gradient traveling wave provided as indicated by partial rings 44 u2032 together with full rings 44 to accelerate and curve particles 14 about axis 16 the radial containment may also be via magnetic field with the angular acceleration via traveling wave as the radius of curvature in a magnetic field follows the particle momentum mv using the technique in which heavier masses gain less velocity the fields may be set such that several mass species may be contained in the same orbital radius after an appropriate period of acceleration the particles may be released tangentially to a detector 26 or 28 this system may be used for sorting and separation of particles with similar masses referring now.