All five noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) were used in
this work. The noble gases were always paired with Ar as a
makeup gas-chamber gas pair. An identical set of measurements
with Ar as the chamber and noble gas as the makeup gas was
performed. The ratio of ICP-AES emission intensities was
measured to determine the effect of the noble gas on laser
sampling relative to that of Ar. Since the total carrier gas
composition in the ICP was kept constant (50% noble gas and 50%
Ar in the carrier gas stream), the effects of gas medium on ICP