New Wave™ NWR 213 Laser Ablation unit with dual concentric injector Our New Wave 213 laser ablation unit was upgraded to the NWR system in 2015. Capabilities: Laser spot size via variable aperture from 4 – 110 µm, laser firing frequency from 1 – 20 Hz.
Teledyne Photon Machines Iridia 300 Hz 193 nm Laser Ablation System.This instrument was acquired in December 2024 with support from the NIGMS and Dartmouth College. Capabilities: This is a 193 nm ArF excimer laser system. It has two energy attenuators and so is able to ablate soft biological tissue at fluences below the ablation threshold of glass. This instrument is suitable for both soft and hard biological specimens, able to fire at up to 300 shots per second. The unit has a 2-volume sample chamber that achieves higher analytical performance with significantly less gas use (typically 4-5 times lower than previous systems.
ESL imageBIO laser ablation unit. This instrument was acquired through a 2022 S10 HEI grant and installed in November 2022. Capabilities: This unit is designed specifically for fast imaging of biological samples. The laser has a firing frequency of 1000 Hz and when coupled to the ICPTOF can image with single pixel integrity at up to 1000 pixels per second (compared with our current system where we are collecting data at 4 pixels per second). The redesigned sample cell and transport system delivers the sample to the ICP in a discrete sample plume on the order of 1 msec wide, which significantly enhances the signal to noise ratio for analytes.
Agilent™ 7900 inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). This instrument was acquired in May 2016. Capabilities: This instrument has excellent sensitivity; equivalent to the 8900 ICP-MS and these instruments share the basic lens and detector designs that allow for the enhanced ion throughput. Often laser ablation of biological samples is not subject to interference, and either the 7900 ICP-MS or 8900 ICP-QQQ can be used to provide excellent multi-element detection in no gas mode.
Nu-Plasma Vitesse time of flight inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICPTOF). This instrument was acquired through a 2022 S10 HEI grant and installed in March 2023. Capabilities: ICPTOF collects data for the full elemental mass range (all the elements) with very fast acquisition times (30 µsec). These instrumental characteristics make ICPTOF ideal for the characterization of nanoparticles, single cells and as a detector for laser ablation elemental spatial imaging.