Continuum source atomic absorption spectrometry (CS-AAS) has made impressive progress in the last 5 years
thanks to the availability of high resolution e´chelle spectrometers and solid state array detectors. With these new
spectrometers and detectors, the capabilities of CS-AAS exceed those of conventional, line source-AAS (LS-AAS).
For CS-AAS, absorbances are more accurate (corrected for stray radiation and non-specific broadband background
absorption and integrated with respect to height in the furnace), detection limits average a factor of 2 lower,
calibration ranges are a factor of 1000 greater, multi-wavelength data are available for correction of spectral
interferences, sensitivity is a powerful quality assurance measure since it is independent of all instrument parameters
except atomization temperature and, of course, multi-element detection is possible. The future appears bright for
CS-AAS. Whereas, previously, CS-AAS was striving for parity with LS-AAS, it is now reasonable to state that it is
CS-AAS which is setting the standard.