Novel laser ablation cell with decreased sample washout and increased sensitivity

Full text: Generalized laser ablation cells have been designed to accommodate a wide range of sample types and sizes, but most of these suffer from long wash-in and wash-out times and poor sample transport with some sample types. Research groups have overcome this by building custom cells for specific sample types. A novel laser ablation cell is presented that exhibits short sample wash-in and wash-out times, and has excellent sensitivity. Coupled with ICPMS, the novel cell has the potential to increase throughput in rapid screening assays, and improve detection limits for difficult-to-analyze samples. (author)