The first part of this two-part review focused on the fundamental and diagnostics aspects of laser-induced plasmas, only touching briefly upon concepts such as sensitivity and detection limits and largely omitting any discussion of the vast panorama of the practical applications of the technique. Clearly a true LIBS community has emerged, which promises to quicken the pace of LIBS developments, applications, and implementations. With this second part, a more applied flavor is taken, and its intended goal is summarizing the current state-of-the-art of analytical LIBS, providing a contemporary snapshot of LIBS applications, and highlighting new directions in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, such as novel approaches, instrumental developments, and advanced use of chemometric tools. More specifically, we discuss instrumental and analytical approaches (e.g., double- and multi-pulse LIBS to improve the sensitivity), calibration-free approaches, hyphenated approaches in which techniques such as Raman and fluorescence are coupled with LIBS to increase sensitivity and information power, resonantly enhanced LIBS approaches, signal processing and optimization (e.g., signal-to-noise analysis), and finally applications. An attempt is made to provide an updated view of the role played by LIBS in the various fields, with emphasis on applications considered to be unique. We finally try to assess where LIBS is going as an analytical field, where in our opinion it should go, and what should still be done for consolidating the technique as a mature method of chemical analysis.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1366/11-06574

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), part II: review of instrumental and methodological approaches to material analysis and applications to different fields.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has become a very popular analytical method in the last decade in view of some of its unique features such as applicability to any type of sample, practically no sample preparation, remote sensing capability, and speed of analysis The technique has a remarkably wide applicability in many fields, and the number of applications is still growing From an analytical point of view, the quantitative aspects of LIBS may be considered its Achilles' heel, first due to the complex nature of the laser–sample interaction processes, which depend upon both the laser characteristics and the sample material properties, and second due to the plasma–particle interaction processes, which are space and time dependent Together, these may cause undesirable matrix effects Ways of alleviating these problems rely upon the description of the plasma excitation-ionization processes through the use of classical equilibrium relations and therefore on the assumption that the laser-induced 

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Part I: Review of Basic Diagnostics and Plasma–Particle Interactions: Still-Challenging Issues Within the Analytical Plasma Community

Characterization of laser induced plasmas by optical emission spectroscopy: A review of experiments and methods

Pulsed laser ablation is a simple, but versatile, experimental method that finds use as a means of patterning a very diverse range of materials, and in wide areas of thin film deposition and multi-layer research. Superficially, at least, the technique is conceptually simple also, but this apparent simplicity hides a wealth of fascinating, and still incompletely understood, chemical physics. This overview traces our current physico-chemical understanding of the evolution of material from target ablation through to the deposited film, addressing the initial laser–target interactions by which solid material enters the gas phase, the processing and propagation of material in the plume of ejected material, and the eventual accommodation of gas phase species onto the substrate that is to be coated. It is intended that this Review be of interest both to materials scientists interested in thin film growth, and to chemical physicists whose primary interest is with more fundamental aspects of the processes of pulsed laser ablation and deposition.

http://www.tlchm.bris.ac.uk/pt/diamond/pdf/csr33-23.pdf

Pulsed laser ablation and deposition of thin films.

Quantitative micro-analysis by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy: a review of the experimental approaches☆

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is reviewed by dividing the literature into three categories according to target phase: solid, liquid, or gas. Within each category, the literature is ...

Fundamentals and Applications of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Several factors influence the precision of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements. This paper reports on the effect of emission signal temporal development, sample translational velocity, number of spectra accumulated, laser pulse stability, detector gate delay, surface roughness, and use of background correction on LIBS precision. The results are presented in two formats: within measurement/shot-to-shot precision (intra-measurement) and between measurement precision (inter-measurement). The data indicate that intra- and inter-measurement precision are optimized under different conditions. The best precision obtained was 0.03% .

Variables Influencing the Precision of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Measurements

At the Xth Colloquium Spectroscopicum Internationale, held at the University of Maryland in June, 1962, Fred Brech described his initial encouraging spectrochemical measurements using a ruby `maser'-induced plasma. The idea of using a laser-induced `spark' as a spectrochemical plasma source is extremely attractive and the potential advantages are now very well known: no sample preparation is needed; a sample of any phase may be examined, electrically conducting or not; remote measurements are possible; spatial information can be obtained; and rapid, simultaneous multi-element analysis is possible. For the past 35 years, laser-induced plasma spectroscopy has been widely studied during three obvious periods of growing and declining interest. The last five years have seen a renewed level of activity in the field, largely the result of ever improving detection technologies and increasingly reliable laser sources. It now appears likely that laser-induced plasma spectroscopy will find useful applications in elemental process monitoring and in portable semi-quantitative elemental analyzers. The fundamental matrix sensitivity of the technique may limit its use as a general-purpose analytical tool. This review examines selected literature of 1997.

Recent trends and the future of laser-induced plasma spectroscopy

A battery powered, portable laser-induced breakdown spectrometry instrument with a low pulse energy laser and a low resolution, non-gated spectrometer is evaluated. Improvements in the instrument probe design were accomplished through studies of the plasma spatial development, lens-to-sample distance effects and spatial filtering. The prototype was evaluated on paint, steel, ores, and organic samples. Limits of detection ranged from 0.016% for Mn in NIST SRM steel to 0.13% for Ca in NIST SRM organic samples. Acceptable precision (0.4–4.9%) was obtained for steel, ore and organic SRM samples. The poorer precision (4.0–44.1%) obtained for the detection of Pb in paint can be attributed to the heterogeneity of the samples.

Battery powered laser-induced plasma spectrometer for elemental determinations

Two-dimensional images of the distribution in space and time of the chemical species associated with the spectral emission from a laserinduced breakdown (LIB) plasma on a solid sample were captured. The time-dependent spatial shape and size of the plasma, viewed simultaneously from two orthogonal directions, were measured in terms of the emission from a lead ionic line and a set of lead atomic lines. The temporal and spatial behavior are characteristically different for the different spectral lines. The ionic emission (220 nm) is confined to a smaller, more concentrated central part of the LIB plasma, whereas the atomic emission (280 nm) is more evenly dispersed over the entire plasma. A protrusion of the plasma was observed where there was no significant emission at 220 or 280 nm. Time-resolved spectral imaging has the potential to considerably improve analytical LIB spectroscopy (LIBS) results and lead to a better fundamental understanding of its behavior.

B. C. Castle

Papers

Fundamentals and Applications of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Variables Influencing the Precision of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Measurements

Recent trends and the future of laser-induced plasma spectroscopy

Battery powered laser-induced plasma spectrometer for elemental determinations

Spatial and Temporal Dependence of Lead Emission in Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy