Atomic Spectrometry Update—Atomic Mass Spectrometry and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry

Abstract

Strong development continues in most areas of atomic mass spectrometry. There is an ever increasing pressure to push back limits with the result that reported performances in terms of absolute detection limits, sample requirement and isotopic abundance sensitivities are reaching levels that could only have been dreamed of a few years ago. This can have the drawback of extremely complex and expensive instrumentation which is only available to a few laboratories. There is an increasing tendency to decouple sample atomization and ionization with the result that various combinations are possible and the traditional definitions become less applicable. This is particularly true for techniques employing one or more lasers. It is however pleasing to report that attempts are being made to make instrumentation simpler and more practical for routine analyses. The combination of chromatography with atomic MS has received increasing attention with particular potential for metal speciation studies. Amongst the vast range of applications of atomic MS, the detection of low levels of contaminants in environmental samples and high-purity materials continues to be of prime importance.The past year has seen a continuing high level of publication in the XRF field once more indicating the rude health of this long-established multi-element instrumental analytical technique. Of particular note is the great interest in total reflection XRF (TXRF) and its rapid acceptance in the semiconductor industry for its ability to determine extremely low levels of surface contamination on wafers and also to carry out depth profiling on the same devices. One particular benefit of the technique when used in the semiconductor industry is that it is non-destructive—a clear benefit in reducing costs yet maintaining high product quality. In addition to TXRF the topics of XRMF and SRXRF are given increased prominence in this Update in line with the level of interest evident from the literature during the review period.