title: Characterization of a tunable optical parametric oscillator laser system for multielement flame laser excited atomic fluorescence spectrometry of cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, and thallium in buffalo river sediment.
abstract: A pulsed (10 Hz) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) laser system based on beta-barium borate (BBO) crystals and equipped with a frequency-doubling option (FDO) was characterized for use in laser excited atomic fluorescence spectrometry (LEAFS). This all-solid-state laser has a narrow spectral line width, a wide spectral tuning range (220-2200 nm), and a rapid, computer-controlled slew scan of wavelength (0.250 nm s-1 in the visible and infrared, and 0.125 nm s-1 in the ultraviolet). The output power characteristics (15-90 mJ/pulse in the visible, 1-40 mJ in the infrared, and 1-11 mJ in the ultraviolet), laser pulse-to-pulse variability (3-13% relative standard deviation, RSD, of the laser pulses), conversion efficiency of the FDO (2-17%), and spectral bandwidth in the visible spectrum (0.1-0.3 cm-1) were measured. The laser was used as the excitation source for a flame LEAFS instrument for which rapid, sequential, multielement analysis was demonstrated by slew scan of the laser. The instrument allowed about 640 measurements to be made in about 6 h, with triplicate measurements of all solutions and aqueous calibration curves, which yielded accurate analyses of a river sediment (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Buffalo River Sediment, 2704) for five elements with precisions < 5% RSD. Comparable or improved flame LEAFS detection limits over literature values were obtained for cobalt (2 ng mL-1), copper (2 ng mL-1), lead (0.4 ng mL-1), manganese (0.2 ng mL-1), and thallium (0.9 ng mL-1) by flame LEAFS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs 06269-4060, USA.
authors.forename: J X
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: K X
authors.initials: KX
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Michel
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis*; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical