| Laser Ablation Goes Primetime LA-ICP-MS System helps crack the case on the hit TV-series, Fremont, Calif., November 29, 2004 - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the hit TV show about a team of forensic investigators who use both cutting-edge scientific methods and old-fashioned police work to solve crimes, recently tapped Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to crack a particularly tough case. In the recent episode, “What’s Eating Gil Grissom”, investigators are stumped by a crime scene consisting only of human-skeletal remains when they finally get a break: they discover a near-microscopic blue chip among the remains. The problem is, the sample size is far too small for the capabilities of conventional forensics techniques. Instead, they employ a laser-ablation microscope; it has no problem identifying the material: a shard of human fingernail smeared with blue paint and motor oil. Eventually, the evidence is crucial to unlocking the case: the killer’s M.O. is to apply blue paint to a staircase railing, using motor oil to retard the drying process. He waits for the female victim to touch the railing and when she attempts to wash the paint off her hand, he attacks. While the story is fictional, the technology is real world. “ICP-MS reveals elemental signatures that traditional forensics techniques cannot,” said John Roy, Vice President for New Wave Research . “It is an excellent tool for analyzing minute samples, or differentiating between samples with physical, chemical and visual similarities. In fact, ICP-MS can distinguish samples that are chemically inert, of the same brand, or from different batches of the same manufacturing run.” “IC-MS is also far less destructive,” Roy explained. “Standard forensics techniques typically involve extensive sample preparation and hazardous substances. This can introduce contamination and destroy large amounts of a sample. In contrast, ICP-MS requires only a minute sliver of the sample.” In ICP-MS, a pulsed laser vaporizes a minute amount of a solid sample. A gas stream carries the sample vapor into a high-temperature plasma where it is ionized before extraction into the mass spectrometer for analysis. The ICP-MS system featured on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is installed in numerous crime labs and employs the New Wave Research UP-213, a high-performance Nd:YAG deep UV (213 nm) laser ablation system. The UP-213 improves ablation of all materials for ICP-OES and ICP-MS, including fragile and easily cleaved minerals. It can be used with any ICP, noble gas or stable isotope mass spectrometer for solid sampling of semiconductor, geological, biological and environmental specimens. "Because the UP-213 system operates in the deep UV, it produces a fine particle distribution that increases transport efficiency of the aerosol, resulting in better sensitivities and minimal deposits at the plasma," said Roy. "The system also produces long, spike-free stable signals ideal for isotope ratios, and it's an excellent thin-film analysis tool, providing precision depth profiling and spot sizes to 5µm." Established in 1990, New Wave Research creates, develops, and manufactures high-quality, laser-based systems and modules for microelectronics and analytical instrumentation applications. For more information, contact John Roy , New Wave Research, 48660 Kato Road, Fremont, Calif., 94538; e-mail: NWR_lasers@esi.com; Web: www.new-wave.com
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