Enhancement of Nd:YAG LIBS emission of a remote target using a simultaneous CO(2) laser pulse.

For the first time to the best of our knowledge, a simultaneous 10.6 mum CO(2) laser pulse has been used to enhance the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) emission from a 1.064 mum Nd:YAG laser induced plasma on a hard target. The enhancement factor was on the order of 25 to 300 times, depending upon the emission lines observed. For an alumina ceramic substrate the Al emission lines at 308 nm and Fe impurity line at 278 nm showed an increase of 60x and 119x, respectively. The output energy of the Nd:YAG laser was 50 mJ/pulse focused to a 1 mm diameter spot to produce breakdown. The CO(2) laser pulse had a similar energy density of 40 mJ/mm(2). Timing overlap of the two laser pulses within 1 microsecond was important for enhancement to be observed. An observed feature was the differential enhancement between different elemental species and also between different ionization states, which may be helpful in the application of LIBS for multi-element analysis.

[1]  William F. Pearman,et al.  Dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with combinations of femtosecond and nanosecond laser pulses. , 2003, Applied optics.

[2]  Joseph Sneddon,et al.  RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INSTRUMENTATION FOR LASER INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY , 2002 .

[3]  Chan,et al.  Analysis of solids by laser ablation and resonance-enhanced laser-induced plasma spectroscopy , 2000, Analytical chemistry.

[4]  F. Massines,et al.  Nano-particle size-dependent charging and electro-deposition in dielectric barrier discharges at atmospheric pressure for thin SiOx film deposition , 2007 .

[5]  Joseph Sneddon,et al.  Applications of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometry , 1997 .

[6]  P. Mukherjee,et al.  Effect of initial plasma geometry and temperature on dynamic plume expansion in dual-laser ablation , 1999 .

[7]  M. Sira,et al.  The Transition Between Different Discharge Regimes in Atmospheric Pressure Air Barrier Discharge , 2007 .

[8]  Cheung Nh,et al.  Analysis of solids by laser ablation and resonance-enhanced laser-induced plasma spectroscopy , 2000 .

[9]  Jagdish P. Singh,et al.  Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy , 2007 .

[10]  V. Babushok,et al.  Double pulse laser ablation and plasma: Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy signal enhancement , 2006 .

[11]  D. I. Chekhov,et al.  Mechanisms of resonant laser ionization , 1997 .

[12]  Andrew I. Whitehouse,et al.  Test of a stand-off laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy sensor for the detection of explosive residues on solid surfaces , 2006 .

[13]  William F. Pearman,et al.  Observations in Collinear Femtosecond—Nanosecond Dual-Pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy , 2006, Applied spectroscopy.

[14]  S. Michael Angel,et al.  Enhancement of Aluminum, Titanium, and Iron in Glass Using Pre-Ablation Spark Dual-Pulse LIBS , 2000 .

[15]  F. Yueh,et al.  Optical emission from laser-produced chromium and magnesium plasma under the effect of two sequential laser pulses , 2005 .

[16]  J. Townsend,et al.  Electricity in gases , 2022 .