PURPOSE: To hold stable plasma state and determine the slight amounts of elements on the minute surface of a solid specimen by feeding the atom vapors of the specimen sampled through laser light radiation into a plasma torch and further re- exciting the same.

CONSTITUTION: Laser beam 2' from a laser oscillator 2 is reflected by a mirror 5 and is radiated onto the minute surface of the specimen 13 in a specimen sampling chamber 3 to cause atom vapors to be produced. Next, the abovementioned atom vapors are carried on the inert gas being introduced through feed ports 4, 6, are thereby risen and carried into a quartz-made torch 9, where they are excited by the induction heating coil which is provided on the outside circumference of the torch 9 and is operated by the output of a high frequency oscillator 8, whereby plasma clouds 14 are formed. The emission rays from the plasma clouds 14 are condensed by a lens 10 and are subjected to spectral analysis in a spectroscope 11, after which the spectra are converted to currents in a detecting part 12. The currents are then outputted via amplifier 16 to a recording part 17. The abovementioned method makes possible the analysis of determination accuracy within several % in the order of ppb.