Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; Femtosecond laser; Double-pulse; Enhancement mechanism;INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY; SIGNAL ENHANCEMENT; METALLIC SAMPLES; OPTICAL-EMISSION; ABLATION; NANOSECOND; SILICON; ALUMINUM; SINGLE; COPPER

A dual-wavelength femtosecond double-pulse laser is used to induce the Cu plasma spectroscopy in air. The laser wavelengths are a fundamental wavelength (800 nm) and a second harmonic wavelength (400 nm) from Ti:sapphire laser. The inter-pulse delay of double-pulse is from 300 ps to 160 ps. The observed spectral intensity is dependent on the inter-pulse delay of the dual-wavelength femtosecond double-pulse. We analyze the characteristics of the plasma temperature and the electron number density on the inter-pulse delay of double-pulse with two different wavelengths. For 800 nm + 400 nm, the spectral emission enhancement is based on more material ablation. For 400 nm + 800 nm, the enhanced mechanism is plasma reheating effect. This study will provide a better way to understand the mechanism of femtosecond double-pulse LIBS. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY; DOUBLE-PULSE; OPTICAL-EMISSION; CAVITY CONFINEMENT; TEMPERATURE; IMPROVEMENT; SILICON

The effect of spatial confinement on femtosecond laser-induced Cu plasmas was investigated by time-resolved spectroscopy. The cylindrical cavities with various diameters (2 and 3 mm) and various heights (2, 3, and 4 mm) were placed on the sample surface. An obvious enhancement in the emission intensity of Cu atomic lines was observed when a cylindrical cavity was used to confine the femtosecond laser-induced Cu plasmas. The results showed that enhancement ratios in femtosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with spatial confinement varied with cavity diameters and atomic emission lines selected. The spatial confinement effect was not significantly influenced by the cavity height because the height of plasma plume is lower than the cavity height. The maximum enhancement ratio for the emission intensities of the Cu atomic lines was measured to be around 3 at a time delay of 3.5 mu s when the cavity diameter is 2 mm. The spectral enhancement is attributed to the compression of the plasma by the reflected shock wave. Published by AIP Publishing.

INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY; ABLATION; EMISSION; SPARK

The influence of distance between sample surface and focal point on optical emission spectroscopy of laser-induced silicon plasma by a nanosecond Nd:YAG laser operating at the wavelength of 1064 nm was investigated in air. Our results show that the emission intensity of Si (I) 390.6 nm line and N (II) 399.5 nm line depends strongly on the distance between sample surface and focal point. When the surface of ablated sample is away from the focal point of focusing lens, the neutral atomic line (Si(I) signal to be measured) is much higher than the ionic line (interference signal N (II)). Therefore, we can improve the intensity of Si (I) signal to be measured, and reduce the intensity of interference signal N (II). The presented result is mainly based on the reduction of interaction between the plasma plume and the ambient air, leading to much weaker collisions. (C) 2017 Author(s).

LIBS; plasma plume; sample temperature; expansion dynamics;INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY; DOUBLE-PULSE CONFIGURATION; OPTICAL-EMISSION; MAGNETIC-FIELD; QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS; LIBS ANALYSIS; SPECTROMETRY; SINGLE; STEEL; ABLATION

In this paper, we investigated the influence of sample temperature on the expansion dynamics and the optical emission spectroscopy of laser-induced plasma, and Ge was selected as the test sample. The target was heated from room temperature (22 degrees C) to 300 degrees C, and excited in atmospheric environment by using a Q-Switched Nd:YAG pulse laser with the wavelength of 1064 nm. To study the plasma expansion dynamics, we observed the plasma plume at different laser energies (5.0, 7.4 and 9.4 mJ) and different sample temperatures by using time-resolved image. We found that the heated target temperature could accelerate the expansion of plasma plume. Moreover, we also measured the effect of target temperature on the optical emission spectroscopy and signal-to-noise ratio.

laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; femtosecond laser filament; plasma temperature; electron density;INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), which is also known as laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS), is a very promising spectral analysis technique for detecting elemental composition. The possibility of remote operation of LIBS is one of the properties, which expands the application scope of this technique. The remote LIBS technique is based on a long-range lens. With the increase of focusing distance, it is difficult to tightly focus laser pulse due to the diffraction limits. The size of focusing spot increases with focusing distance increasing. This will require extremely high laser energy. Femtosecond laserfilamentation due to optical Kerr effect can be applied to the remote LIBS. During the filament propagation, the waist of laser beam is close to a constant value. The laser intensity inside the filament is about 10(13) W/cm(2) (intensity clamping). The intensity is sufficient to ablate sample and produce the plasma. It can overcome the influence of the diffraction limit in nanosecond LIBS. Although many researchers have studied the femtosecond geometrical focusing and femtosecond filamentation LIBSs, the spectral characteristics have not been completely understood. In this paper, we study the femtosecond laser filament-induced Cu plasma spectroscopy. Femtosecond laser system is an ultrafast Ti:sapphire amplifier (Coherent Libra). The full-width at the half maximum is 50 fs at a wavelength of 800 nm with a repetition rate of 1 kHz and its output energy is 3.5 mJ. A quartz lens with a focal length of 1 m is used to focus the laser to generate a filament channel. The spectral intensity of produced Cu plasma along the filament channel is measured by using the optical emission spectroscopy, and the distribution of Cu(I) intensity versus the distance between sample and focused lens is obtained. The results indicate that in a longer distance range along the filament, plasma spectroscopy has stronger emission due to the intensity clamping effect in femtosecond laser filamentation. In addition, we also calculate the plasma temperature and electron density by using the Boltzmann plot and the Stark broadening. The plasma temperature and electron density along the filament channel can be divided into three main regions:region 1) from 950 mm to 970 mm, in which the plasma temperature and electron density increase with the increase of distance; region 2) from 970 mm to 1030 mm, in which the change of plasma excitation temperature is opposite to the change of electron density; region 3) from 1030 mm to 1050 mm, in which the plasma temperature and electron density decrease with the increase of distance.

LIBS; spatial confinement; cavity height; signal enhancement;INDUCED ALUMINUM PLASMA; TIME-RESOLVED EMISSION; OPTICAL-EMISSION; MAGNETIC-FIELD; PULSE; ENHANCEMENT; ABLATION; SILICON; LIBS; OPTIMIZATION

In this paper, we present a study on the spatial confinement effect of laser-induced plasma with a cylindrical cavity in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS). The emission intensity with the spatial confinement is dependent on the height of the confinement cavity. It is found that, by selecting the appropriate height of cylindrical cavity, the signal enhancement can be significantly increased. At the cylindrical cavity (diameter = 2mm) with a height of 6 mm, the enhancement ratio has the maximum value (approximately 8.3), and the value of the relative standard deviation (RSD) (7.6%) is at a minimum, the repeatability of LIBS signal is best. The results indicate that the height of confinement cavity is very important for LIBS technique to reduce the limit of detection and improve the precision.

FEMTOSECOND DOUBLE-PULSE; OPTICAL-EMISSION; PLASMA; ENHANCEMENT; SILICON

The spatial confinement effect in laser-induced plasma with different distances between the target surface and focal point is investigated by optical emission spectroscopy. A Nd: YAG laser is used to produce plasma from a silicon sample in air atmosphere. When the appropriate distance is selected, the duration of spectral emission enhancement is much longer, and the enhancement effect is much stronger. The phenomenon is attributed to the aspect ratio of the lateral to axial direction of the plasma plume. The plasma plume of a large aspect ratio will interact with the reflected shockwave in a long range of delay time, leading to high particle density. This provided a better understanding about the effect of the distance between the target surface and focal point, leading to better conditions for spatially confined laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; spatial confinement; signal enhancement;INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY; PULSE

In laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), a serious of cylindrical cavities are used to spatially confine the plasmas produced from silicon (Si) target by using a Nd: YAG laser in air. Time-resolved spectrum of Si plasma with different diameters of cylindrical spatial cavities is measured. Compared with the plasmas generated without the confined cavity, the spectral emission intensity of plasma generated with cylindrical cavity is enhanced at a certain delay time. As the diameter of cylindrical cavity increases, the spectral emission is enhanced later in time and the enhancement becomes weaker. The result shows that the presence of the confined cavity leads to an increase in the spectral emission of plasma which is attributed to compressed plasma by the reflected shockwave.

Q-SWITCHED NDYAG; EMISSION ENHANCEMENT; OPTICAL-EMISSION; PLASMA; SPARK

In this study, we observed the evolution of the spectral emission intensity of a glass sample with the increase of sample temperature, laser energy, and delay time in femtosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (fs-LIBS). In the experiment, the sample was uniformly heated from 22 degrees C to 200 degrees C, the laser energy was changed from 0.3 mJ to 1.8 mJ, and the delay time was adjusted from 0.6 mu s to 3.0 mu s. The results indicated that increasing the sample temperature could enhance the emission intensity and reduce the limits of detection, which is attributed to the increase in the ablated mass and the plasma temperature. And the spectral intensity increases with the increase of the laser energy and the delay time, however, the spectral line intensity no longer increases when the laser pulse energy and delay time reach a certain value. This study will lead to a further improvement in the applications of fs-LIBS. Published by AIP Publishing.