  Existing molecular communication systems, both theoretical and experimental,
are characterized by low information rates. In this paper, inspired by
time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS), we consider the design of a molecular
communication system in which the channel is a vacuum and demonstrate that this
method has the potential to increase achievable information rates by many
orders of magnitude. We use modelling results from TOFMS to obtain arrival time
distributions for accelerated ions and use them to analyze several species of
ions, including hydrogen, nitrogen, argon, and benzene. We show that the
achievable information rates can be increased using a velocity (Wien) filter,
which reduces uncertainty in the velocity of the ions. Using a simplified
communication model, we show that data rates well above 1 Gbit/s/molecule are
achievable.
