Improving acquisition times of elemental bio-imaging for quadrupole-based LA-ICP-MS

Elemental bio-imaging experiments by quadrupole-based LA-ICP-MS normally employ scan speeds where the distance traversed in one second is equal to or less than the diameter of the laser beam. Consequently, data for a higher-resolution (pixel size = 15 μm2) image of a 5 mm2 tissue section can take upwards of 30 h to acquire. Appropriate laser scan speeds may be calculated by consideration of the relationship between laser scan speed, laser spot diameter and the total scan cycle of the quadrupole mass analyser. This paper presents a simple method to calculate the laser scan speeds capable of reducing the acquisition time by up to a factor of 5 whilst maintaining dimensional integrity of the image.