Evaluation of a Microcavity Hollow Cathode Discharge Emission Source

Abstract

A microcavity hollow cathode discharge emission source has been designed and evaluated for ultratrace analysis of sub-μL samples of solution residues. It was found that sample drying time and cathode precondition had a significant effect on the signal-to-background and signal-to-noise ratios. Detection limits for Cu and Pb were determined to be 10 pg and 210 fg, respectively.