Recent Advances in Emission Spectroscopy: Inductively Coupled Plasma Discharges for Spectrochemical Analysis

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Scope

The inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopic source is a new and popular tool for spectrochemical analysis; its development since the early 1960s, especially during the past 5 years, has established that the ICP will play a major role in elemental analysis for the near future of analytical spectrochemistry. A critical evaluation of the ICP discharge is undertaken here only to establish a benchmark in the analytical progress, since, in the next half decade, applications and fundamental information are expected to surpass the accomplishments already achieved by a wide margin.