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

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy has been applied to perform elemental analysis of aluminum alloy targets. The plasma is generated by focusing a pulsed Nd:YAG laser on the target in air at atmospheric pressure. Such a plasma was characterized in terms of its appearance, emission spectrum, space-integrated excitation temperature, and electron density. The electron density is inferred from the Stark broadening of the profiles of ionized aluminum lines. The temperature is obtained by using Boltzmann plots of the neutral iron lines. Calibration curves for magnesium, manganese, copper, and silicon were produced. The detection limits are element-dependent but are on the order of 10 ppm.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1366/0003702953964408

Quantitative Analysis of Aluminum Alloys by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and Plasma Characterization

A comparison of single and double pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of aluminum samples

Temporal characterization of femtosecond laser pulses induced plasma for spectrochemical analysis of aluminum alloys

The Stark broadening parameters of the 1990.53, 2631.55, 2669.17, 2816.18, 3900.68, and 5593.23 A lines of Al(II) have been measured in a plasma produced by ablation with a Nd:YAG laser of an aluminum target. In order to obtain suitable experimental conditions for the homogeneity and stability of the plasma a study of the spatial and temporal plasma evolution in helium, argon, and nitrogen at different pressures was made. The broadening parameters were obtained with the aluminum target placed in molecular nitrogen at 1000 mbar, which provides appropriate measurements conditions. The Al(II) 4663.05 A line was used to determine the electron density in all cases. For this line the Stark shift parameter has been measured. Contributions to broadening arising from mechanism different than Stark broadening were estimated for every studied line.

P. Ruiz

Papers

Measurement of the Stark broadening and shift parameters for several ultraviolet lines of singly ionized aluminum