Atomic emission spectrometly was performed m a laser-Induced plasma m air The plasma was produced by focusing the beam of an Ar-F (193 nm) excnner laser mto a liquid aerosol nebuhzer system A hqmd aerosol was generated unth a concentrrc glass nebuhzer-spray chamber assembly and camed mto the plasma by the argon (0 5 1 mm-') nebuhzer gas In general, the emission signal lasted ca 35-40 ps after the laser pulse The excitation temperature of the plasma decreased from 3994 K at 1 ps to 3607 K at 35 ps after the laser pulse The solution hnuts of detection (30 of the blank) were determined for Na, LI, In, Al, Ga, Ca, Mg, K and Sr to be 0 9,0 3, 10, 3, 3,8,3,2 and 20 pg ml-', respectively The sensltnnty obtained with this system IS slrmlar to that of a previous Nd YAG wet droplet system reported m the literature Keywords Atomic emission spectrometry, Laser-induced plasmas, Plasmas A plasma can be generated by laser-Induced breakdown of a gas Plasma generation processes have been summarized by Ralzer [l] Laser-mduced plasmas (LIPS) have been produced by laser excitation using high-power pulsed laser systems such as the Nd YAG at 532 mn [2] or 1064 nm [3-101, the CO, laser at 10 6 pm [ill and the Ar-F exclmer laser at 193 nm [12] For wavelengths m the vlslble regon, the typical threshold laser lrradutnces for breakdown to occur m air and inert gas [2] 1s ca 10" W cmb2 and m the presence of water droplets It IS ca lo9 W cmm2