Abstract
Rare earth elements in the fluoride were determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry. The determination was done using the peaks due to doubly charged ions without spectral interference. Lanthanum in the sample was employed as an internal standard. The detection limits for the elements ranged from 0.0039 to 0.056 wt%. Lanthanum in synthetic and xenotime samples was determined by the standard addition method, and other elements in the samples were determined from the concentration of lanthanum and the relative ion intensities of the elements to lanthanum. For most elements of more than 1 wt%, the analytical results were in agreement with the theoretical values and with the results obtained by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry.
