An atmospheric pressure inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is used with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS) for ion deposition. The deposited element is introduced as a nebulized aqueous solution. Modifications to the ICP-MS device allow generation and deposition of a mass-resolved beam of Ho-165(+) at 5X10(12) ions S-1. The ICP is a universal, multielement ion source that can potentially be used for applications such as deposition of mixtures of widely varying stoichiometry or of alternating layers of different elements.