A double pulse method for glow discharge enhancement

The already established technique of pulsed glow discharge spectroscopy is extended in these studies to the application of a second pulse applied at a variable delay after a first pulse. The net discharge then consists of a series of double pulses in which each second pulse in the series enhances the emission intensity of the analyte atoms produced by the first pulse. A copper hollow cathode is used to show high emission enhancement for atom and ion lines of the sputtered species and the neon discharge gas species. The technique shows promise for further study by both atomic emission and mass spectrometry.