25 years of lasers and analytical chemistry: A reluctant pairing with a promising future

The invention of the laser gave promise of a universal, high-resolution, coherent, extremely bright light source for applications in analytical chemistry. Even though there has from time to time been remarkable success in chemical detection, the use of lasers in commercial analytical instrumentation has not been widespread. It is often simply the case that the benefits do not outweigh the disadvantages. However, during the past 25 years, lasers have found their place in several specific analytical realms, most notably in laser sampling and in a wide range of new spectroscopic microscopies.