Some intense sources of radiation for the alkali and alkaline earth elements

Five new methods are described for the preparation of intense narrow line sources of resonance radiation for the alkali and the alkaline earth elements. Optimum conditions for their preparation and operation are described and their suitability for atomic fluorescence spectrometric purposes has been investigated. The most successful method involves a discharge in flowing atmospheric pressure argon in a quartz tube. A small quantity of the element (or element halide) of interest is suspended in a quartz cup in the discharge stream. The resulting source is applicable to a wide range of relatively involatile elements and, although it is somewhat short lived, it may be recharged readily. Microwave excitation of hollow cathode lamps was not found to be very useful for analytical purposes.