Femtosecond laser ablation: Experimental study of the repetition rate influence on inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry performance

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of performing bulk chemical analysis based on laser ablation for good lateral resolution with only nominal mass ablated per pulse. The influence of repetition rate (1-1000 Hz) and scan speed (1-200 mu m/s) using a low energy (30 mu J) and a small spot size (similar to 10 mu m) UV-femtosecond laser beam was evaluated for chemical analysis of silica glass samples, based on laser ablation sampling and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Accuracy to approximately 14% and precision of 6% relative standard deviation (RSD) were measured. Published by Elsevier B.V.