Electrothermal vaporization and laser ablation sample introduction for flame and plasma spectrometric analysis of solid and solution samples

High-temperature vaporization- ablation sources provide vapor and/or dry aerosol that can be transported to an analytical observation volume where revaporization of particulates and atomization/ionization/excitation of the vapor can take place. In the previous three decades, graphite-are vaporization, electrothermal vaporization and laser ablation techniques have been combined with flame and inductively coupled plasma sources in the author's laboratories. These works constitute the basis for a more general review and evaluation of the concepts and results documented in related literature. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.