signal for spatially targeted applications. Laser ablation is a fast, clean, and green technique that requires minimal sample preparation (no digestion or dilution), which saves time in the lab. This also equates to far fewer opportunities for contamination. Lastly, the lack of acid reagents makes laser ablation much greener than solution chemistry. Laser ablation is commonly paired with Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). LA-ICP-MS therefore is an analytical technique that uses direct micro-scale sampling to provide high precision elemental characterization of solid materials. This technique is extremely versatile, as the analyses can be performed on many solid materials without any preparation.
Ideal uses of LA-ICP-MS are elemental survey of solids, traceability analysis, elemental distribution analysis and mapping, local inclusion and defect analysis, and depth specific chemical assay. Manufacturers of computer chips and printed circuit boards, components for medical devices, industrial coatings, and lithium-ion batteries, or anything that has a really small structure to it, often utilize EAG Scientists to perform this analysis to better understand their products.