A novel use of pulsed hollow cathode lamps for the purpose of background correction with a dual wavelength atomic absorption spectrophotometer is described. The pulsed hollow cathode lamp in conjunction with a transient signal gating system behaves as if the analyte source and the background correction source are firing alternately in time. Determinations of Fe, Mg, and Cd are carried out in order to evaluate the performance in practical analyses. Procedures and results on the time-resolved measurement of emission spectra and resonance line profiles from several kinds of pulsed hollow cathode lamps are also demonstrated in detail.
