A new way of organising spectral line intensity ratio fluctuations of different elements

Abstract

A new method of organising spectral line intensity ratio fluctuations of different elements has been developed in order to establish which line pair of analysis is more or less stable for repeated measurements. A linear graph was obtained for spectral lines from different elements when the spectral line intensity ratio fluctuations were plotted versus the photon energies and the ionisation energies of these lines. When these fluctuations were plotted versus the upper level energies instead, no linear structure relationship was obtained.

The light sources used were an inductively coupled plasma with a slot-type nebuliser system and a hollow-cathode lamp for flat metal samples. The analyses were carried out by using a computerised image dissector échelle spectrometer system.