A new type of solid-state detector has been designed to meet the needs of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), including high quantum efficiency in the UV, low noise, wide dynamic range, rapid readout, broad spectral coverage, and high spectral resolution. The device is based on buried-channel chargecoupled-device (CCD) technology with unique features for optical emission spectroscopy and is matched to a specific echelle grating optical system described in the companion paper. It measures simultaneously 5.7% of the continuous ICP spectrum from 167 to 782 nm with 224 linear photodetector arrays. These arrays are targeted on three to four primary analytical lines for each of 72 elements and cover over 5000 ICP emission lines. This device provides the combination of high quantum efficiency in the UV, low readout noise typical of CCDs, true random-access readout, and charge blooming control for wide dynamic range. In general, the detector has photometric performance (quantum efficiency, noise, dynamic range) equal to or better than photomultiplier tubes for ICP-OES. The simultaneously measured spectral data can be used to correct for spectral interferences and correlated background noise so that analytical detection limits are photon shot noise limited.

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