Elemental analysis of actinides and radionuclides of interest by laser spectroscopy

Laser spectroscopy is more and more used for elemental analysis at low level as well as speciation of actinides and radionuclides of interest. Based on a literature review and experiments developed by the Analytical laser spectroscopy laboratory, the principle, performances, applications as well as the advantages and drawbacks of these different techniques are presented. A comparison with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is presented. These different laser based spectroscopic techniques are in molecular spectroscopy: thermal lensing, time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence, fluorescence of iodine and in atomic spectroscopy: optogalvanic laser induced fluorescence in a graphite furnace, laser induced fluorescence in an ICP, collinear resonance ionization and resonance ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS). The main advantages of laser spectroscopy are the lack of chemical preparation, rapidity, selectivity, sensitivity as well as the possibility to perform remote measurements via fiber optics.(authors). 64 refs., 5 tabs., 9 figs