A method of accounting for the scattered radiation in atomic fluorescence spectrometry

Atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS) has begun to attract an increasing interest as a method for multicomponent analysis. The method based on the excitation line broadening and inversion effects avoids the problems associated with the continuous light source and increases accuracy of the AFS method. In order to account for the scattered radiation in this method, the authors consider the processes occurring during the interaction of exciting resonance radiation with the gas-phase substance in the atomizer; they show that the total intensity of the fluorescence emission in the spectral range corresponding to the width of the exciting radiation is proportional to the number of atoms in the upper emitting state. The method of accounting for the scattered radiation was tested by the AFS of gold-containing ores. The results presented prove that it is possible to determine the gold content with this method with the scattered light intensity 2-8 times higher than the fluorescence intensity