Laser Ablation / LA-ICP-MS
Direct solid sample analysis without dissolution — serving South Africa's geoscience, mining and materials science community.
A focused laser, not an acid bath.
A focused pulsed laser fires at the solid surface, vaporising a microscopic crater — typically 5 to 200 micrometres across and a few micrometres deep. The particle plume is swept by a carrier gas directly into an ICP-MS.
No acids, no dissolution, no dilution, no hazardous waste. What takes a day with digestion takes minutes.
Dissolution destroys spatial information. Laser ablation tells you composition at a specific point, and can raster across a surface to produce an elemental map — e.g. where exactly gold sits within a sulfide grain, which determines recovery process choice.
Archaeological artefacts, gemstones, forensic evidence, individual mineral grains, biological tissue — samples that cannot or must not be destroyed.
The ablation cell matters as much as the laser. The particle plume must be transported to the plasma without spreading out in time. The Cobalt low-dispersion cell (paired with the Iridia) produces single-shot signal pulses approximately 1 millisecond wide, enabling pixel acquisition rates above 250 Hz — turning multi-day imaging experiments into minutes-long ones.
The Bushveld Complex, Witwatersrand Basin, Barberton Greenstone Belt and Kaapvaal Craton. Zircon U-Pb geochronology, trace element mapping, fluid inclusion studies, geochemical provenance.
Mineral deportment studies, inclusions in alloys and metals, process control and quality assurance.
Coatings, semiconductors, thin films, battery electrode/cathode materials, advanced ceramics.
Elemental distribution in tissue sections; metal-tagged immunohistochemistry.
Glass fragment matching; provenance of ceramics, obsidian and gemstones.
Fusions CO₂ and Fusions Diode for ⁴⁰Ar/³⁵Ar dating.
Analyse solids directly, without dissolution
| System | Laser | Primary Application |
|---|---|---|
| Iridia | 193 nm excimer | High-speed imaging; all precision applications |
| Analyte Excite | 193 nm excimer | General elemental analysis and imaging |
| Analyte G2 | 193 nm excimer | High-performance general purpose |
| LSX-213 G2+ | 213 nm Nd:YAG | Geological, mineral and materials |
| LSX-266 | 266 nm Nd:YAG | Geological; accessible entry point |
| Excite Pharos | 193 nm excimer | Pharmaceutical / bio-imaging |
| Fusions CO₂ / Fusions Diode | CO₂ / Diode | Noble gas extraction; ⁴⁰Ar/³⁵Ar geochronology |
Where the Laser Ablation / LA-ICP-MS is put to work.
Questions we are asked about the Laser Ablation / LA-ICP-MS.
A laser ablation system replaces the conventional nebulizer/spray chamber sample introduction path. The particle plume produced by each laser pulse is swept by a carrier gas directly into the ICP-MS torch, in place of a liquid aerosol — the plasma and detector side of your ICP-MS are unaffected.
Shorter wavelengths produce finer, more controlled ablation with less thermal damage. 266 nm Nd:YAG (LSX-266) is an accessible entry point adequate for many minerals; 213 nm Nd:YAG (LSX-213 G2+) gives better coupling and finer particles for geological and materials work; 193 nm excimer systems (Analyte Excite, Analyte G2, Iridia) are the current standard for high-precision work and couple with essentially all materials, including transparent ones such as calcite and quartz. Femtosecond systems go further still, virtually eliminating thermal effects and elemental fractionation.
The particle plume has to reach the plasma without spreading out in time. A high-dispersion cell smears a single laser shot into a signal lasting hundreds of milliseconds, limiting imaging speed. The Cobalt low-dispersion cell, paired with the Iridia, produces single-shot signal pulses approximately 1 millisecond wide, enabling pixel acquisition rates above 250 Hz — turning multi-day imaging experiments into minutes-long ones.
All three are 193 nm excimer systems. The Iridia is Teledyne Photon Machines' current-generation flagship, purpose-built for high-speed imaging and paired with the Cobalt low-dispersion ablation cell. The Analyte Excite covers general elemental analysis and imaging, and the Analyte G2 is a high-performance general-purpose system.
Yes. The Fusions CO₂ and Fusions Diode systems serve a distinct isotope geology and geochronology market — heating mineral grains to release trapped argon for ⁴⁰Ar/³⁵Ar dating — separately from the elemental-analysis LA-ICP-MS systems above.