A compact field-portable double-pulse laser system to enhance laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

Abstract

This paper reports the development of a compact double-pulse laser system to enhance laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for field applications. Pumped by high-power vertical-surface emitting lasers, the laser system that produces 16 ns pulse at 12 mJ/pulse with total weight less than 10 kg is developed. The inter-pulse delay can be adjusted from 0μs with 0.5μs increment. Several LIBS experiments were carried out on NIST standard aluminum alloy samples. Comparing with the single-pulse LIBS, up to 9 times enhancement in atomic emission line was achieved with continuum background emission reduced by 70%. This has led to up to 10 times improvement in the limit of detection. Signal stability was also improved by 128% indicating that a more robust and accurate LIBS measurement can be achieved using a compact double-pulse laser system. This paper presents a viable and field deployable laser tool to dramatically improve the sensitivity and applicability of LIBS for a wide array of applications.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2017
Source ID
10.1063/1.4975597

Entities

People

  • Aidong Yan
  • Kevin C. Chen
  • Lei Liu
  • Rongzhang Chen
  • Sheng Huang
  • Shuo Li
  • Xi Huang
  • Yongfeng Lu

Organizations

  • Defense Threat Reduction Agency
  • National Science Foundation
  • University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • University of Pittsburgh

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy