Hello everyone.
I want to use LA-ICP-MS to measure trace elements in quartz. However, I found the laser I used cannot ablate quartz. It seems that the laser beam just passes through this mineral (See the video 1). In some situation, after several-second laser ablation, the quartz bursts (See the video 2).
The laser I used is Resolution M50 (nanosecond, wavelength: 193nm).
So, does anyone have the experience for quartz analysis by LA-ICP-MS and can give some suggestions for me?
Sorry, I don't use LA-ICP-MS technique . we use ED-XRF machine and AXIL software to analyse elemental concentration at ppm level.
Two suggestions: 1 the laser is not aligned perfectly and thus you may not have the focal point on the mienral surface. The Laser can be adjusted via software or manually via small screws; 2: the thin section is too thin and the mineral easily cracks, you may want to try a polished thick section or the quarz embedded in resin and polished for the ablation procedure.
Hi, Hohl. Thank you for your suggestions. However, I think they are not the situation in my laser. 1 The laser works well for many other minerals (e.g. olivine, plagioclase, apatite, zircon). 2 I also prepared quartz grains in mounts, but they still easily burst after several second laser ablation. Simon Valentin Hohl
Quartz ablation and analysis by LA-ICP-MS is possible with both nanosecond and femtosecod lasers. See the paper attached.
Hi! I don't have a broad experience on LA-ICP-MS but I did analyzed some quartz crystals for trace elements. I was using a UVlaser-ablation microsampler CETAC Exite (λ=193 nm) with a beam size of 85µm but more important to my opinion is to use thick sections (~ 200µm). Maybe you can also play around with the frequency and energy in order to ablate gently the crystal.
Cheers,
Julie
There is a book chapter in "Quartz: Deposits, Mineralogy and Analytics" going into details of analyzing quartz with LA-ICP-MS, written by Belinda Flem and Axel Müller- Data In Situ Analysis of Trace Elements in Quartz Using Laser Abl...
Think you should get it to work, but the orientation of the quartz crystal can also affect how well it is ablated, so you might need to experiment with that too. Good luck!
Hello, Le Zhang, i think you need to increase fluence and repetition rate
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