The Approach to Reducing the Detection Limit for LA-ICP-MS

This work is a part of the RED-100 big project. The aim of the RED-100 experiment is to detect the presently undiscovered coherent neutrino scattering off xenon atomic nuclei. The manufacture of such detectors requires ultrapure materials with very low content of natural radioactive elements. So the pure titanium was selected to assay the uranium and thorium contaminations on 1 ng/g level. In this paper we investigate the possibility of reducing the LOD for LA-ICP-MS analysis by increasing the pulse repetition rate of solid-state laser irradiation up to 4,000 Hz and appropriate adjusting the irradiation power. LODs for U and Th in titanium matrix estimation fell in the sub 10-10 g g− 1 level.