Single zircon dating by LAM-ICPMS technique

A UV laser ablation microprobe-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LAMICPMS) is used to determine the Pb/Pb and Pb/U ages of several zircon grains whose ages have been measured by the conventional U-Pb thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) method. The mass fractionation factor of Pb isotope ratio was typically between 0.010-0.012 and corrected by NIST610 glass standard. Several factors that influence the stability of Pb/U ratio have been investigated and optimized. The precision of²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb and²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U from each sampling crater is within 0.6%—2.4% and 1%—10% respectively, while the precision for the average of mean ratios from different craters is 0.7% and 6% correspondingly. The²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb and²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age differences compared with TIMS results are ≪ 1% and < 3% respectively.