Simulation of atomic spectra—II. Mutual spectral interferences of rare earth elements in the inductively coupled plasma

Abstract

This article is an electronic publication in Spectrochimica Acta Electronica (SAE), the electronic section of Spectrochimica Acta B (SAB). The hardcopy text, comprising the main article and an appendix, is accompanied by a diskette with a program, data files, and a manual. The text details the purpose of the work, with emphasis on the spectroscopic aspects, and the appendix provides the essential information for accessing the diskette and using program and data. Additional tutorial guidance is provided by the manual. The program primarily concerns the simulation of the spectra of rare earth elements (REE) as interferents in 80-pm wide spectral windows centred about the wavelengths of 26 prominent lines of Ce, La, Nd, Pr, and Sm. The program essentially covers the model described in Spectrochim. Acta 43B, 1365 (1988) and the database is identical to the experimental database published in Spectrochim. Acta 44B, 31 (1989). Accordingly, the data are for an inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The program enables the user to simulate spectra with the spectral bandwidth as an optional variable. The user may then generate spectra of both single REEs, without or with analyte, and mixtures of REEs of any composition, also without or with analyte, whereby for spectra with analyte the display includes the blank spectrum. Displays are accompanied by legends providing a set of essential numerical data. In addition, particular program options allow the generation of numerical data only, one of them being the calculation of true detection limits. This option permits it to perform, within the limited scope of the database, line selection for complex REE samples in a rational way. The program operates, in principle, with the default values of the ICP Doppler temperature (6800 K) and “average” ICP a-parameter of the Voigt profile (0.5), but these values may be optionally modified. Similarly, the user may add new data files to the base and thus also apply the program for other purposes and outside the REE environment, such as model studies in general, and for learning or teaching, as explained in the manual on the diskette. The tutorial part of this manual provides the user not only with elementary instructions for using the program as a practical tool, but also incorporates a variety of instructive examples, including a brief “course” on spectral line profiles and spectral interferences.