LA-ICP-MS Laboratory

The LA-ICP-MS (“Laser Ablation – Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry”) is a sensitive analytical method for rapid multi-element analysis of solid materials and technical products at trace and ultra-trace level.

The investigated sample material is ablated by a focused laser beam and transported by a carrier gas (argon or helium) into the inductively coupled plasma ion source of an ICP-MS. The small sample particles are atomized and positively ionized at about 8000 °C hot plasma, accelerated and transported into the high vacuum of the mass spectrometer. There they are separated according to their mass/charge and energy/charge ratio prior to time resolved detection.
The resulting laser craters are only a few µm wide, therefore this minimal invasive method is suitable for valuable materials (e.g., archeological artifacts, gemstones). At the laboratory of the Institute for Geosciences (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), the LA-ICP-MS method is applied since 2004 for the characterization of samples with respect to their trace element composition related to geology, mineralogy, climate research, materials sciences, gemstone research, and archaeology. Additionally, this method is applied for isotope analysis (e.g., U-Pb dating of zircon).

The diversity of analyzed materials and research questions, investigated by internal and external collaboration partners, is reflected in the publications issued by international, peer-reviewed journals since 2006.

Instruments

LA-ICP-MS

UP213 (New Wave) NWR 193 (ESI New Wave) ICP-Massenspektrometer

Nd: YAG Feststoff-Laser ArF Excimer Laser Agilent 7500ce
213 nm wavelength 193 nm wavelength Quadrupol mass spectrometer
crater sizes 2-100 µm crater sizes 1- 150 µm with reaction cell (He, H2)
Large Format Cell Two volume cell TwoVol2
(15 cm x 15 cm x 2 cm) (10 cm x 10 cm x 2 cm)

Sample Preparation

Buehler IsoMet Low speed saw Leica S8 APO Stereozoom

Ir-Strip-Heater