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We report on investigations of plasmas produced by laser ablation of fresh potatoes using infrared nanosecond laser radiation. A twin laser system consisting of two Nd:YAG oscillators was used to generate single or double pulses of adjustable interpulse delay. The potatoes were irradiated under ambient air with moderate pulse energies of about 10 mJ. The expansion dynamics of the ablation plume was characterized using fast imaging with a gated camera. In addition, time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy was applied to study the spectral line emission of the various plasma species. The electron density was deduced from Stark broadening, and the plasma temperature was inferred from the relative emission intensities of spectral lines. The relative concentrations of metals were estimated from the comparison of the measured emission spectra to the spectral radiance computed for a plasma in local thermal equilibrium. It is shown that the plasma produced by double pulses has a larger volume and a lower density. These properties lead to an increase of the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 2 and thus to an improved measurement sensitivity.

We report on accurate analysis of indium-zinc oxide thin films via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) based on the calculation of the spectral radiance of the nonuniform laser-produced plasma. A thin film sample with variable elemental composition was irradiated with ultraviolet nanosecond laser pulses and the plasma emission spectra were characterized using time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy.Thus, the spectrum recorded with an Echelle Spectrometer coupled to a gated detector was compared to the spectral radiance computed for a plasma in local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions. The time evolution of the plasma was studied to find optimized recording conditions for which the self-absorption of spectral lines is minimized. In addition, the time-resolved measurements allowed us to determine the Stark broadening parameters of spectral lines used for the LIBS analysis. The metal fractions measured via LIBS were found to be in good agreement with the values obtained by complementary measurements using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The relative decay between fractions measured with both methods was smaller than 5% over the entire measurement range that implied the variation by a factor of four in the case of zinc. The present results show that LIBS measurement procedures based on plasma modeling could be used for fast quality control in the industrial production of thin films.

International audienceWe have performed spectroscopic analysis of the plasma generated by Nd:YAG (lambda = 266 nm) laser irradiation of thin indium zinc oxide films with variable In content deposited by combinatorial pulsed laser deposition on glass substrates. The samples were irradiated in 5 x 10(4) Pa argon using laser pulses of 5 ns duration and 10 mJ energy. The plasma emission spectra were recorded with an Echelle spectrometer coupled to a gated detector with different delays with respect to the laser pulse. The relative concentrations of indium and zinc were evaluated by comparing the measured spectra to the spectral radiance computed for a plasma in local thermal equilibrium. Plasma temperature and electron density were deduced from the relative intensities and Stark broadening of spectral lines of atomic zinc. Analyses at different locations on the deposited thin films revealed that the In/(In + Zn) concentration ratio significantly varies over the sample surface, from 0.4 at the borders to about 0.5 in the center of the film. The results demonstrate that laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy allows for precise and fast characterization of thin films with variable composition. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3656448

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a technique that can provide qualitative and quantitative measurements of the сharacteristics of irradiated metals. In the present work, we have calculated the parameters of the plasma produced from a brass alloy sample under the action of a pulsed Nd : YAG laser operating at 1064 nm. The emission lines of copper atoms (Cu I), zinc atoms (Zn I), and lead atoms (Pb I), which are elements of a brass alloy composition, were used to investigate the parameters of the brass plasma. The spectral profiles of Cu, Zn, and Pb lines have been used to extract the electron temperature and density of the brass alloy plasma. The characteristics of Cu, Zn, and Pb were determined quantatively by the calibration-free LIBS (CF-LIBS) method considering for accurate analysis that the laser-induced ablated plasma is optically thin in local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions and the plasma ablation is stoichiometric. The Boltzmann plot method was used to evaluate the plasma temperature, and the Stark broadened profiles were used to determine the electron density. An algorithm based on the experimentally measured values of the intensity of spectral lines and the basic laws of plasma physics was developed for the determination of Cu, Zn, and Pb concentrations in the brass sample. The concentrations calculated by CF-LIBS and the certified concentrations were very close.

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International audienceThe feasibility of the compositional analysis of drugs by calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) was investigated using multivitamin tablets as a sample material. The plasma was produced by a frequencyquadrupled Nd:YAG laser delivering UV pulses with a duration of 5 ns and an energy of 12 mJ, operated at a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The relative fractions of the elements composing the multivitamin drug were determined by comparing the emission spectrum of the laser-produced plume with the spectral radiance computed for a plasma in a local thermodynamic equilibrium. Fair agreement of the measured fractions with those given by the manufacturer was observed for all elements mentioned in the leafl et of the drug. Additional elements such as Ca, Na, Sr, Al, Li, K, and Si were detected and quantifi ed. The present investigations demonstrate that laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is a viable technique for the quality control of drugs

International audienceWe report on spectroscopic analyses of plasmas produced by laser irradiation of nitrogen-free and nitrogen-containing polymer materials. Ultraviolet laser pulses of 5 ns duration and 4 mJ energy were focused onto the samples with a fluence of about 20 Jcm(-2). The plasma emission was analyzed with an Echelle spectrometer equipped with a gated detector. Comparing the spectra recorded during ablation in air and argon, it is shown that the spectral line emission of atomic nitrogen originates from the excitation of the ambient air, whereas the CN molecular bands are essentially emitted from the ablation plume. Furthermore, the measurements demonstrate an additional contribution of nitrogen emission from the air molecules accumulated in the polymer. Storage under vacuum over a duration of the order of one day leads to the release of the absorbed air. As a consequence of the air absorption, the measurement of elemental composition of polymers via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is particularly difficult. Here, we quantify the atmospheric contribution to the plume emission during polymer analysis. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3692982