Laser ablation is a process that directs high-energy laser pulses to impinge on the surface of a material causing ablation of the surface via laser-material interactions. Laser ablation generates particles or clusters of the material that can be transported by a carrier gas away from the ablation point. The particles or clusters of the material generated by laser ablation can be collected and analyzed to determine properties of the material, e.g., the material composition such as elemental concentrations and isotope ratios. For example, laser ablation can be used for inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) which provides a sampling technique to assess elemental concentrations and isotope ratios in solids with little or no sample preparation. ICP-MS uses an inductively-coupled plasma to produce ions which are subsequently analyzed with a mass spectrometer.