How Many Lamps Does an AAS Laboratory Need

This problem is familiar to every AAS user: For each element, an individual hollow-cathode lamp is needed. Multi-element analyses take an enormous amount of time and work. Flexibility, too, is significantly restricted, new elements require new lamps. With the High-Resolution Continuum Source (HR-CS) AAS technology used in the contrAA ® range from Analytik Jena, these disadvantages of conventional AAS have become a thing of the past: a xenon lamp generates a continuous emission spectrum of consistently high intensity across the entire relevant wavelength range. Thus it is possible to analyse all elements of a sample directly, using a fast sequential procedure. Thanks to alternative wavelengths, it is possible to extend the measuring range towards higher concentrations, doing away with the need for time-consuming dilutions.

In conjunction with a high-resolution double monochromator and a CCD line detector, it is possible to visually represent the absorption spectrum of each sample. Users ‘see what they are measuring’ and are thus able to detect and correct any interferences promptly and easily.