Stabilization of spark discharge point on sample surface and enhancement of emission intensity by laser irradiation

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A combined technique with laser irradiation is proposed to control spark discharge for analytical use, having a unique feature that firing points of the spark discharge can be fixed by laser irradiation. Because the spark discharge easily initiates at particular surface sites, such as non-metallic inclusions, called selective discharge, the concentration of some elements sometimes deviates from their average one in spark discharge optical emission spectrometry. Therefore, stabilization of firing points on a sample surface could improve the analytical accuracy and precision.When a tungsten stylus having a round-shaped tip and an iron plate were used as the counter and the sample electrodes, it was very difficult to induce spark discharges between these electrodes having distances of a few mm in air, and a closer spacing of less than 0.7 mm was required to generate the spark discharge under our experimental conditions. By introducing laser irradiation, the electrode distance could be extended up to 3.5 mm while keeping stable spark discharges.We also moved a tungsten stylus electrode to within 2 mm horizontally from the breakdown position of the laser-induced plasma The spark channel could be maintained between the stylus electrode and the breakdown position regardless of the length of the spark channels. It is found that the initiation site of a spark discharge can be controlled by laser irradiation.By using the present combined technique, emission intensity of Fe I 373.5 nm was enhanced 1.5 times brighter than the one obtained by a spark discharge spectrometry alone. This may be due to the additional increment of a sampling amount by laser ablation in addition to the one obtained by a spark discharge alone.