The effect of evaporation on the analyte emission intensities during power interruption in an inductively coupled plasma

A power interruption technique is used to study the population balances of excited states of analytes in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Measurements on Li analyte emission show that the Boltzmann balance of excitation of and de-excitation to the ground state is the dominant population process for the lower excited levels. During the power interruption, changes in the excitation and de-excitation flows are visible and it turns out that the ionization degree of Li depends strongly on position, central flow and plasma power. The results cannot be explained unless evapn. of analyte is assumed to have an important impact on the excitation flow in the Li system. [on SciFinder (R)]