Spark ablation–inductively coupled plasma optical emission for elemental depth profiling and imaging

Spark ablation was coupled to inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for direct solid sample introduction. The preliminary applications including elemental depth profiling of metallic thin films and surface elemental imaging for solid conductive samples were explored to expand the applications of traditional ICP-OES. The parameters affecting the spark discharge for ablation sampling including electrode materials, electrode gap, discharge voltage, and gas flow rate were investigated in details. The mechanism of spark ablation was also briefly discussed with data of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.