A new analytical mode and application of the laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer in the earth sciences

We proposed a new laser analytical mode, which used the high-frequency laser ablation to deliberately obtain the peak-shape signal profile, combined with the linear regression calibration (LRC) method to calculate elemental or isotopic ratios. In order to access the performance of the new laser analytical mode for the application in the field of earth science, we systematically investigated the elemental quantitative analysis with high spatial resolution (10 µm), rapid U-Pb dating in zircons and accurate Sr-Hf isotope analysis in geological samples. The new high-frequency laser analysis technology (20 Hz, 100 pulses) reduced the limit of detection (LOD) of 25 elements to 0.005–0.16 µg g −1 with crater diameters of 10 µm, which are significantly lower (decrease to 2–20%) than previous researches. The quantitative analysis of five silicate glass reference materials showed that the precision and accuracy of the 25 trace elements (with the concentration ranging from 0.17 to 683 µg g −1 ) were better than 16% and 15%, respectively. The new methods raised the analytical throughput of zircon U-Pb dating, Sr isotope ratios and Hf isotope ratios to 250 analyses per hour, 144 analyses per hour and 120 analyses per hour in theory, while the analytical accuracy and precision did not be compromised. The detailed investigations showed that the proposed new laser analytical mode has good application effects in the field of earth sciences.