Simultaneous determinations of U-Pb age and REE abundances for zircons using ArF excimer laser ablation-ICPMS

Using a laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (LA-ICPMS), U-Pb age and rare earth element (REE) abundances have been determined simultaneously from a single 20 mum ablation pit of zircon. The laser ablation system utilizing 193 nm wave-length ArF excimer laser produces stable and reproducible signal intensities resulted in good precisions on measurements of element concentrations and isotopic ratios. Because of the higher energy density of the deep ultra-violet laser beam, ablation fractionation between Pb and U were reduced even with the prolonged ablation, and thus accuracy of Pb-U age was improved significantly. A chicane-type ion lens system was applied to a quadrupole-based ICPMS instrument. With the chicane ion lens, higher elemental sensitivity (4 times for light mass range and 3 times for mid to heavy mass range) and lower white background (<5 cps for light to mid mass range and <2 cps for heavy mass range) were achieved. This further improved analytical precisions for low concentration elements in samples. The U-238-Pb-206 ages for Nancy standard zircon (Nancy 91500), SHRIMP calibration standard zircon (SL13) and Antarctic zircon (PMA7) obtained in this study were 1064 +/- 24 Ma, 569 +/- 78 Ma and 2438 +/- 101 Ma (2-sigma), respectively. Relative age differences from previous reports were 0.2%, 0.4% and 3.2% respectively, demonstrative of high reliability of the method. The REE abundances in zircon samples were calibrated using a NIST 610 glass standard reference material. The resulting REE abundance data for zircons (Nancy 91500 and SL13) show good agreement with those for literature values within the analytical precision of similar to20%. The matrix effect that may occur between the synthetic glass standard and zircon crystals is obviously smaller than the precision and thus negligible for this precision levels. The data presented here demonstrate clearly that the combination of ArF excimer laser and ICPMS equipped with the chicane ion lens has a potential to become a significant tool for zircon geochemistry.