Abstract: A simultaneous multi-element atomic absorption spectrometry system includes a light source, a furnace, a spectrometer, and a random access charge transfer device. The furnace creates vapors of a sample contained within the furnace. The light source passes a light beam through the furnace so that wavelengths of the light beam corresponding to spectral lines of multiple elements contained in the vapors are absorbed by the vapors. The spectrometer receives the light beam after the light beam has passed through the furnace, and disperses the light beam into a spectrum. The random access charge transfer device receives the light beam after the light beam has passed through the spectrometer, integrates and stores charge corresponding to the intensity of the light beam, and randomly accesses for readout subarrays of the random access charge transfer device corresponding to spectral lines of the multiple elements.