Patent ID: 8199321

Claim:
An apparatus for ablation spectroscopy, comprising: a stage to support a sample, the stage being operable to move in x and y directions of a plane and in a z (height) direction perpendicular to the plane; an ablation source operable to ablate material from a sample on the stage; a position sensor operable to generate a displacement signal proportional to a difference in height of a sample site; a stage position control circuit operable to automatically adjust a height of the stage based on the displacement signal; a detector coupled to a spectrometer, wherein the spectrometer and detector are operable to receive electromagnetic radiation emanating from the ablated material and to detect intensity and wavelength values of the electromagnetic radiation; and a computer operable to: receive the wavelength and the intensity values from the detector and spectrometer, determine a representation of a sample composition based on the received wavelength and the intensity values, and output and/or record the representation and/or wavelength and intensity values.