Effects of crater development on fractionation and signal intensity during laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

The effects of crater development on ICP-MS signal intensities and elemental fractionation have been presented in this work. Craters formed after repetitive 266-nm Nd/YAG laser ablation with 1.0-mJ pulses had a cone-like shape. The laser ablation rate (ng/s) depended on the laser irradiance (laser pulse energy per unit time and unit area), decreasing as irradiance increased. In contrast, the particle entrainment/transport efficiency did not significantly change with irradiance. As the crater-aspect ratio (depth/diameter) increased above some threshold value of six, the Pb/U elemental ratio departed from the stoichiometric value. However, good stoichiometry of ablated mass could be achieved when experimental conditions were carefully selected. The exact mechanism of how crater development affects fractionation is not well understood. In this work, actual irradiance was introduced instead of a nominal value. Actual irradiance decreased as the crater deepened due to changes of the effective area, sampled by the laser beam. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.