Laser Ablation ICP Chamber for Non-Contact Trace Sample Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing laser ablation ICP analysis techniques face challenges in achieving rapid analysis processing with high sensitivity and accuracy, particularly due to sample contamination, diffusion, and difficulty in analyzing trace amounts and local portions of the sample.
Innovation Solution
A non-hermetically sealed chamber is used in a non-contact state with the analysis sample, employing a quartz glass window and inert gas atmosphere, allowing aerosol generation and discharge through suction for inductively coupled plasma mass analysis, without sample contact and with controlled gas flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a cell is used in close contact with the analysis sample to purge aerosol with argon gas, then the inflow of analysis sample into ICP analysis device is facilitated, but the contact portion on the surface of the analysis sample is likely to be contaminated
Solution Approach 1:
The device is divided into a chamber portion and a cell portion that can be separated. The chamber performs laser ablation and aerosol generation, while the cell performs ICP analysis. This segmentation allows the chamber to be positioned away from the sample surface, preventing contamination while maintaining efficient aerosol transport to the cell for analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
Aerosol serves as an intermediary carrier that transports sample material from the laser ablation chamber to the ICP cell. By using aerosol as the medium, the system avoids direct contact between the cell and the sample surface, eliminating contamination risks while maintaining the benefits of close-proximity analysis.
2Measurement precision
If the atomized analysis sample is suctioned and discharged from the chamber together with carrier gas, then diffusion of the atomized analysis sample in the cell is suppressed, but rapid analysis processing is not achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the positioning of the chamber relative to the sample surface and optimizes carrier gas flow rates based on analysis requirements. This dynamic control allows the system to achieve both rapid aerosol generation and efficient sample transport, balancing analysis speed with sensitivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system optimizes multiple parameters including laser power, pulse duration, carrier gas flow rate, and chamber-to-sample distance. By carefully adjusting these parameters, the system achieves rapid aerosol generation while maintaining efficient sample transport to the ICP cell,从而实现 both rapid analysis and high sensitivity.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a non-hermetically sealed chamber is used in non-contact state with the analysis sample, then sample contamination is prevented, but the amount of atomized sample to be sent into ICP analysis device varies with gap changes
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates feedback control that monitors the chamber-to-sample distance and adjusts carrier gas flow rate accordingly. When the gap increases, the system increases gas flow to maintain aerosol transport efficiency, and vice versa. This feedback mechanism maintains consistent analysis accuracy while preventing sample contamination through non-contact operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method enables rapid and accurate analysis of samples with various shapes, maintaining high sensitivity and preventing contamination, while allowing local analysis of substrate end portions.
Implementation Method 1
a laser ablation ICP analysis method in which a minute region of the analysis sample is irradiated with a laser to evaporate and atomize the sample at the irradiation position, thus generating an aerosol of the analysis sample
Implementation Method 2
introducing a chamber-use inert gas, being an argon gas or a mixed gas of an argon and a helium, into the non-hermetically sealed chamber to bring an inside of the non-hermetically sealed chamber into an atmosphere of the chamber-use inert gas, and causing the chamber-use inert gas to leak from the opening; discharging the aerosol of the analysis sample from the inside of the non-hermetically sealed chamber together with the chamber-use inert gas by suction
Implementation Method 3
the aerosol of the analysis sample is subjected to an ICP mass analysis
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3~4
AI summary
A laser ablation ICP analysis method in which an analysis sample is irradiated with a laser beam to atomize the analysis sample, thus generating an aerosol of the analysis sample, and the aerosol of the analysis sample is recovered, and is subjected to an inductively coupled plasma mass analysis. The method includes: disposing a non-hermetically sealed chamber with an opening of a bottom plate of the non-hermetically sealed chamber, which includes a glass window located on the side opposite to the opening and is made of a quartz, located proximate to the surface of the analysis sample; introducing a chamber-use inert gas into the non-hermetically sealed chamber to bring an inside of the non-hermetically sealed chamber into an atmosphere of the chamber-use inert gas, and causing the chamber-use inert gas to leak from the opening; performing laser beam irradiation toward the opening to generate the aerosol of the analysis sample; and discharging the aerosol of the analysis sample from the inside of the non-hermetically sealed chamber together with the chamber-use inert gas by suction from an ejector, a nebulizer, or a vacuum pump for the inductively coupled plasma mass analysis.