Graphite furnace atomization (also known as electrothermal atomization (ETA)) is a technique for improving the sensitivity and limit-of-detection for atomic absorption measurements. A small amount of sample or standard solution is placed inside a hollow graphite tube. This is resistively-heated in a temperature program to remove sample, burn off impurities, atomize the analyte to form a plume of free metal vapour, and finally clean the tube.
The image below shows a typical bench-top flame atomic spectrophotometer that has been configured for graphite furnace operation. Click on the different parts of the image, or use the links below, for more details.