Changes in plasma characteristics caused by easily ionisable elements in hollow cathode discharge emission spectrography

The effect of several concomitant easily ionisable elements (EIE's), Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs on the line intensity of Sr II (first ionised state) and Al I and He I (atomic states) has been studied by atomic emission spectrometry (AES) hollow cathode (HCD) analysis. The spectral line intensities emitted by Sr II, Al I and He I have been measured while varying the volume of the EIE's concentrations, ranging from 0.1 mg ml to 10 mg ml. In the presence of EIE's at higher concentrations than 0.5% a considerable decrease of the line intensities of Sr II at 430.54 nm and 407.71 nm was observed, together with a gradual decrease in the line intensities of both Al I 494.40 nm and 396.15 nm, and He I 412.1 nm. It is demonstrated in the present experiments with a water-cooled HCD source that interference effects caused by EIE's are observed when the ratio of the number of gas atoms (n(g)) and atoms with low ionisation energy (n(a))n(g)/n(a)is lower than 10(12).