RADIATION-ENHANCED FIELD-FORCED DEPOSITION OF A LASER-PRODUCED AEROSOL IN A GRAPHITE-FURNACE AND CONTINUUM-SOURCE COHERENT FORWARD SCATTERING MULTIELEMENT DETERMINATION

An aerosol produced by laser ablation was transported into a graphite furnace with the inert gas flow and deposited after alpha-irradiation with and without an additional electric field of different polarity applied inside the furnace. Using an Nd:YAG laser pulsed at a rate of several kHz for each pulse with about a 20 ns duration, about 300 kW peak power and detection by coherent forward scattering spectrometry in combination with a xenon continuum source, multi-element spectra of the analyte were recorded. The intensities measured on the 283.1 nm line of lead detected in brass were measured as a function of the number of laser pulses yielding analytical curves. Field enhancement of the aerosol deposition by a factor of about 10(3) was found. The multi-element capability of the spectrometric approach with a continuum source allows the use of internal standards.