EASTERN | DESERT | WARE
INDUCTIVELY | COUPLED | PLASMA | MASS | SPECTROMETRY
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| An ICP-MS
with laser ablation is used to obtain 'finger-prints' of the sherds. A fragment
of each sherd is introduced in a vacuum chamber, which is on the far right
in the set-up above. |
A powerful
laser, guided with the aid of a computer and small camera, evaporates as
much of a 0.45 x 0.60 mm square in the core of the sherd as is necessary
for the analysis. |
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| The evaporated
material is carried by a flow of argon into the ICP-MS where it is ionized.
Following this the concentration, in parts per million, of over 40 elements
can be measured. |
All data
end up in a spread-sheet where they are first corrected using the information
of the regular analyses of blanks and various standard reference materials. |
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