LA-ICP-MS is a microanalytical technique for direct elemental and isotopic analysis. In laser ablation, material is removed from a solid sample using a pulsed laser. This contrasts with the more common solution Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) in which a liquid sample is turned into an aerosol by a nebulizer to facilitate introduction to the mass spectrometer. The most commonly used types of laser for this technique feature either a solid-state Nd:YAG or gaseous Excimer laser source with ultraviolet wavelength and nanosecond pulse width (duration). The pulsed laser induces heating, evaporation, and ionization of the sample (Figure 1); the plume of ablated material subsequently recondenses into nanoparticles which are swept into the ICP-MS by a carrier gas stream. The argon plasma in the ICP-MS acts as a secondary energy source that ionizes the sample atoms for discrimination and measurement according to the mass to charge (m/z) ratio of the positively charged ions.