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The principal subject matter of this work is the application of laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy for the multi‐elemental analytical characterization of different qualities of solid silicon. The physical process upon which the technique is based is the temporally resolved observation of emission spectra emitted by a micro‐plasma generated by a laser focused on the surface of a given sample. The optimal environmental parameters such as the composition of the buffering gas for the identification and measurement of several metallic, non‐metallic, and dopant impurities were determined. Particular attention was given to boron. A detection limit of 2.10−4 mg/g of boron was found using a calibration curve, which was made in the range of 1 to 100 ppmw. Silicon samples from different production techniques (4C and directional solidification), which permit the segregation of different impurities along the length of the silicon ingot were analyzed using laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been employed for the fast and reliable chemical characterization of silicon used for the photovoltaic industry. Silicon for photovoltaic panels is subject to certain constraints on its purity, and notably must contain low concentration of boron. The use of LIBS could be advantageous because it allows rapid and simultaneous multi-elemental chemical analysis of silicon without any sample preparation. LIBS was applied to boron analysis and a detection limit of 0.23 ppmw was found for optimized gas and pressure conditions.