We report the first implementation of a 2 μm thulium fiber laser in a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy system. Emission from plasma on copper samples was analyzed from 200 to 900 nm. The low ablation fluence (<100 J.cm −2 ) and 200 ns pulse duration lead to a plasma with neither continuum emission, nor air emission in the near-infrared region. ©2010 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: (0...

It is shown that the continuum emission produced in the ablation of an Al target with nanosecond laser pulses is much more strongly polarized than the discrete line emission. This effect may be utilized to improve the resolution of the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy spectrum by using a polarizer to filter out the continuum background. The effects of laser fluence and focal position are al...

The specific elemental composition of industrial glass products influences several of its physical properties, such as heat and shock resistance, transparency, and chemical reactivity. Chemical analysis of glass samples is therefore required to support both R&D and production operations. Unfortunately, full elemental analysis of glass by a method like ICP-OES requires digestion with hazardous a...

Three strains of Escherichia coli, one strain of environmental mold, and one strain of Candida albicans yeast have been analyzed by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy using nanosecond laser pulses. All microorganisms were analyzed while still alive and with no sample preparation. Nineteen atomic and ionic emission lines have been identified in the spectrum, which is dominated by calcium, magn...

Flame-enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was investigated to improve the sensitivity of LIBS. It was realized by generating laser-induced plasmas in the blue outer envelope of a neutral oxy-acetylene flame. Fast imaging and temporally resolved spectroscopy of the plasmas were carried out. Enhanced intensity of up to 4 times and narrowed full width at half maximum (FWHM) down t...

Abstract Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy is a fast non-contact technique for the analysis of the elemental composition of any sample. Our focus is to advance this technique into a new regime where we use pulse energies below 100 μJ. This regime is referred to as microLIBS or μLIBS. Preliminary pulse emission scaling of Na in latent fingerprints has been investigated for ∼ 130 fs, 266 nm pu...

Comparison of line plasma and point VUV laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for the detection carbon in steel.

Plasmas induced with large ablation angles are less temporally stable and spatially homogenous, which should be considered during quantitative analysis by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.