Ion cooling and axialization produced by azimuthal quadrupolar excitation in the presence of ion-neutral collisions are applied to laser desorption Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (LD/FT/ICR-MS). With this technique, the large kinetic and internal energies of ions generated by laser desorption processes can be cooled effectively by collisions of ions with neutral argon atoms (at > 5 x 10(-7) Torr). After sufficient cooling in the source compartment of a dual ion trap, the axialized ions may be transferred to the analyzer compartment for detection at much lower pressure (and thus much higher mass resolving power). Enhancements in both FT/ICR mass resolving power and sensitivity are observed; moreover, ion isolation with high selectivity at high pressure is also demonstrated.