The Enhanced Effect of Optical Emission from Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy of an Al-Li Alloy in the Presence of Magnetic Field Confinement

In this paper,the influence of magnetic field strength on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) has been investigated for various pressures.The plasma plume was produced by employing Q-switch Nd:YAG laser ablation of an Al-Li alloy operating at a 1064 nm wavelength.The results indicated that the LIBS intensity of the Al and Li emission lines is boosted with an increase of magnetic strength.Typically,the intensity of the Al Ⅰ and Li Ⅰ spectral emissions can be magnified by 1.5-3 times in a steady magnetic field of 1.1 T compared with the field-free case.Also,in this investigation we recorded time-resolved images of the laser-produced plume by employing a fast ICCD camera.The results show that the luminance of the plasma is enhanced and the time of persistence is increased significantly,and the plasma plume splits into two lobes in the presence of a magnetic field.The probable reason for the enhancement is the magnetic confinement effect which increases the number density of excited atoms and the population of species in a high energy state.In addition,the electron temperature and density are also augmented by the magnetic field compared to the field-free case.     

Electric-field induced fluctuations in laser generated plasma plume

The effect of an external electric field on laser-generated plasma has been studied. It is observed that the laser-generated plasma can be used for the ignition of a spark in the presence of a low voltage external electric field. An eight-fold emission intensity enhancement in Cu Ⅰ spectral lines are measured as compared to the signal intensity in the absence of an external electric field.The plasma parameters remain the same initially, up to a few microseconds after the generation of plasma, and this feature makes it more interesting for the quantitative analysis of any sample using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS). In the presence of an external electric field,fluctuations(contraction and expansion) in the laser-generated plasma are observed which increase the plasma decay time and consequently result in enhanced signal intensity.     

Re-Heating Effect on the Enhancement of Plasma Emission Generated from Fe Under Femtosecond Double-Pulse Laser Irradiation

In this paper, we present a study on the effect of inter-pulse delay using femtosecond double-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in a collinear geometry. The temporal evolution of spectral intensity is performed for the lines of Fe I 423.60 nm, Fe I 425.08 nm and Fe I 427.18 nm. It is found that, by selecting appropriate inter-pulse delay, the signal enhancement can be significantly increased compared with the single-pulse case. A three-fold enhancement in the current experiment is obtained. The plasma temperature and electron density are also investigated based on the theory of Boltzmann plot and Stark broadening. We attribute the main mechanism for emission enhancement to the plasma re-heating effect.     

Enhancement of optical emission generated from femtosecond double-pulse laser-induced glass plasma at different sample temperatures in air

In double-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(DP-LIBS), the collinear femtosecond double-pulse laser configuration is experimentally investigated with different initial sample temperatures using a Ti:sapphire laser. The glass sample is ablated to produce the plasma spectroscopy. During the experiment, the detected spectral lines include two Na(I) lines(589.0 nm and 589.6 nm) and one Ca(I) line at the wavelength of 585.7 nm. The emission lines are measured at room temperature(22 ℃) and three higher initial sample temperatures(T_s?=?100 ℃, 200 ℃, and 250 ℃). The inter-pulse delay time ranges from-250 ps to 250 ps.The inter-pulse delay time and the sample temperature strongly influence the spectral intensity,and the spectral intensity can be significantly enhanced by increasing the sample temperature and selecting the optimized inter-pulse time. For the same inter-pulse time of 0 ps(single-pulse LIBS), the enhancement ratio is approximately 2.5 at T_s?=?200 ℃ compared with that obtained at T_s?=?22 ℃. For the same inter-pulse time of 150 ps, the enhancement ratio can be up to 4 at T_s?=?200 ℃ compared with that obtained at T_s?=?22 ℃. The combined enhancement effects of the different initial sample temperatures and the double-pulse configuration in femtosecond LIBS are much stronger than that of the different initial sample temperatures or the double-pulse configuration only.     

Effect of distances between lens and sample surface on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with spatial confinement

Spatial confinement can significantly enhance the spectral intensity of laser-induced plasma in air.It is attributed to the compression of plasma plume by the reflected shockwave.In addition,optical emission spectroscopy of laser-induced plasma can also be affected by the distance between lens and sample surface.In order to obtain the optimized spectral intensity,the distance must be considered.In this work,spatially confined laser-induced silicon plasma by using a Nd:YAG nanosecond laser at different distances between lens and sample surface was investigated.The laser energies were 12 mJ,16 mJ,20 mJ,and 24 mJ.All experiments were carried out in an atmospheric environment.The results indicated that the intensity of Si (I) 390.55 nm line firstly rose and then dropped with the increase of lens-to-sample distance.Moreover,the spectral peak intensity with spatial confinement was higher than that without spatial confinement.The enhancement ratio was approximately 2 when laser energy was 24 mJ.     

Time-resolved spectroscopy of collinear femtosecond and nanosecond dual-pulse laser-induced Cu plasmas

In this paper,we investigate the time-resolved spectroscopy of collinear femtosecond(fs)and nanosecond(ns)dual-pulse(DP)laser-induced plasmas.A copper target was used as an experimental sample,and the fs laser was considered as the time zero reference point.The inter-pulse delay between fs and ns laser beams was 3 μs.First,we compared the time-resolved peak intensities of Cu(Ⅰ)lines from Cu plasmas induced by fs+ns and ns+fs DP lasers with collinear configuration.The results showed that compared with the ns+fs DP,the fs+ns DP laser-induced Cu plasmas had stronger peak intensities and longer lifetimes.Second,we calculated time-resolved plasma temperatures using the Boltzmann plot with three spectral lines at Cu(Ⅰ)510.55,515.32 and 521.82 nm.In addition,time-resolved electron densities were calculated based on Stark broadening with Cu(Ⅰ)line at 521.82 nm.It was found that compared with ns+fs DP,the plasma temperatures and electron densities of the Cu plasmas induced by fs+ns DP laser were higher.Finally,we observed images of ablation craters under the two experimental conditions and found that the fs+ns DP laser-produced stronger ablation,which corresponded to stronger plasma emission.     

Analysis of Pulverized Coal by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy （LIBS） has been used to detect atomic species in various enviromnents. The quantitative analysis （C, H, O, N and S） of representative coal samples are being carried out with LIBS, and the effects of particle size are analyzed. A powerful pulse Nd：YAG laser is focused on the coal sample at atmosphere pressure, and the emission spectra from laser-induced plasmas are measured by time-resolved spectroscopy, and the intensity of analyzed spectral lines is obtained through observing the laser plasma with a delay time of 0.4 #s. The experimental results show that the slope of calibration curve is nearly 1 when the concentration of the analyzed element is relatively low, and the slope of curve is nearly 0.5 when the concentration of C is higher than other elements. In addition, using the calibration-free model without self-absorption effect, the results show that the decreasing of particle size leads to an increase of the plasma temperature.     

Spectral characteristic of laser-induced plasma in soil

The spectral characteristic of laser-induced plasma in soil was studied in this work, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy was used to analyze the spectral characteristic of plasma under the condition of different time delays and irradiances. Moreover, the time evolution characteristics of plasma temperature and electron density were discussed. Within the time delay range of 0-5 μs,the spectral intensity of the characteristic lines of Si I: 288.158 nm, Ti I: 336.126 nm, Al I:394.400 nm and Fe I: 438.354 nm of the four main elements in two kinds of national standard soil decayed exponentially with time. The average lifetime of the spectral lines was nearly 1.56 μs. Under the condition of different time delays, the spectral intensity of Pb I: 405.78 nm in soil increased linearly with laser energy. However, the slope between the spectral intensity and laser energy decreased exponentially with the increase in time delay, from 4.91 to 0.99 during 0-5 μs. The plasma temperature was calculated by the Boltzmann plot method and the electron density was obtained by inversion of the full width at half maximum of the spectrum. The plasma temperature decreased from 8900 K to 7800 K and the electron density decreased from 1.5 × 10~(17) cm~(-3) to 7.8 × 10~(16) cm~(-3) in the range of 0-5 μs.     

Self-absorption effects of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy under different gases and gas pressures

The self-absorption effect is one of the main factors affecting the quantitative analysis accuracy of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. In this paper, the self-absorption effects of laserinduced 7050 Al alloy plasma under different pressures in air, Ar, and N₂ have been studied.Compared with air and N₂, Ar significantly enhances the spectral signal. Furthermore, the spectral self-absorption coefficient is calculated to quantify the degree of self-absorption, and the inf...     

Temporal and spatial dynamics of optical emission from laser ablation of the first wall materials of fusion device

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) has been developed to in situ diagnose the chemical compositions of the first wall in the EAST tokamak. However, the dynamics of optical emission of the key plasma-facing materials, such as tungsten, molybdenum and graphite have not been investigated in a laser produced plasma(LPP) under vacuum. In this work, the temporal and spatial dynamics of optical emission were investigated using the spectrometer with ICCD.Plasma was produced by an Nd:YAG laser(1064 nm) with pulse duration of 6 ns. The results showed that the typical lifetime of LPP is less than 1.4 μs, and the lifetime of ions is shorter than atoms at ~10~(-6)mbar. Temporal features of optical emission showed that the optimized delay times for collecting spectra are from 100 to 400 ns which depended on the corresponding species. For spatial distribution, the maximum LIBS spectral intensity in plasma plume is obtained in the region from 1.5 to 3.0 mm above the sample surface. Moreover, the plasma expansion velocity involving the different species in a multicomponent system was measured for obtaining the proper timing(gate delay time and gate width) of the maximum emission intensity and for understanding the plasma expansion mechanism. The order of expansion velocities for various species is V_C~+ V_H V_(Si)~+ V_(Li) V_(Mo) V_W.These results could be attributed to the plasma sheath acceleration and mass effect. In addition, an optimum signal-to-background ratio was investigated by varying both delay time and detecting position.     

Nanosecond laser preheating effect on ablation morphology and plasma emission in collinear dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Focus-offset collinear dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is designed and used to investigate the laser ablation and spectral intensity with an aluminum alloy sample. The laser crater morphologies and ablation volumes were measured. An inter-pulse time delay dependent ablation efficiency on a nanosecond laser-heated sample was observed, which was similar to the trend of spectral intensity versus inter-pulse time delay in the delay time less than 3 μs. Based on the observation, the nanosecond pulse laser preheating effect on subsequent second laser ablation and signal enhancement is discussed, which will be helpful for understanding the ablation and signal enhancement mechanism in the standard collinear DP-LIBS technique.     

Influence of a Static Magnetic Field on Laser Induced Tungsten Plasma in Air

In this work,laser induced tungsten plasma has been investigated in the absence and presence of 0.6 T static transverse magnetic field at atmospheric pressure in air.The spectroscopic characterization of laser induced tungsten plasma was experimentally studied using space-resolved emission spectroscopy.The atomic emission lines of tungsten showed a significant enhancement in the presence of a magnetic field,while the ionic emission lines of tungsten presented little change.Temporal variation of the optical emission lines of tungsten indicated that the atomic emission time in the presence of a magnetic field was longer than that in the absence of a magnetic field,while no significant changes occurred for the ionic emission time.The spatial resolution of optical emission lines of tungsten demonstrated that the spatial distribution of atoms and ions were separated.The influence of a magnetic field on the spatial distribution of atoms was remarkable,whereas the spatial distribution of ions was little influenced by the magnetic field.The different behaviors between ions and atoms with and without magnetic field in air were related to the various atomic processes especially the electrons and ions recombination process during the plasma expansion and cooling process.     

Effect of cylindrical cavity height on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with spatial confinement

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 = 2 mm) 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.     

Signal Detection of Carbon in Iron-Based Alloy by Double-Pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Although single-pulse lasers are often used in traditional laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements, their measurement outcomes are generally undesirable be?cause of the low sensitivity of carbon in iron-based alloys. In this article, a double-pulse laser was applied to improve the signal intensity of carbon. Both the inter-pulse delay and the combina?tion of laser wavelengths in double-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (DP-LIBS) were optimized in our experiment. At the optimized inter-pulse delay, the combination of a first laser of 532 nm and a second laser of 1,064 nm achieved the highest signal enhancement. The proper?ties of the target also played a role in determining the mass ablation enhancement in DP-LIBS con?guration.     

Temporal and spatial evolution measurement of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy on hydrogen retention in tantalum

Fuel retention measurement on plasma-facing components is an active field of study in magnetic confinement nuclear fusion devices.The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS)diagnostic method has been well demonstrated to detect the elemental distribution in PFCs.In this work,an upgraded co-axis LIBS system based on a linear fiber bundle collection system has been developed to measure the hydrogen(H) retention on a tantalum(Ta) sample under a vacuum condition.The spatial resolution measurement of the different positions of the LIBS plasma can be achieved simultaneously with varying delay times.The temporal and spatial evolution results of LIBS plasma emission show that the H plasma observably expands from the delay times of 0-200 ns.The diameter of Ta plasma is about 6 mm which is much less than the size of H plasma after 200 ns.The difference in the temporal and spatial evolution behaviors between H plasma and Ta plasma is due to the great difference in the atomic mass of H and Ta.The depth profile result shows that H retention mainly exists on the surface of the sample.The temporal and spatial evolution behaviors of the electron excited temperature are consistent with that of the Ta emission.The result will further improve the understanding of the evolution of the dynamics of LIBS plasma and optimize the current collection system of in situ LIBS in fusion devices.     

Quantitative analysis of saindha salt using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and cross-validation with ICP-MS

Saindha salt is considered to be more advantageous than the other edible salts for the patients suffering from diabetes,blood pressure and kidney diseases.To explore the constituent elements of this salt,laser induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) has been exploited for its qualitative and quantitative analysis.The third harmonic(355 nm) of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser has been used to produce the saindha salt plasma and the time integrated optical emission spectra were registered using a set of six miniature spectrometers covering the spectral range of 230-805 nm.The spectroscopic analysis of the emission spectra predominately revealed numerous neutral or singly ionized emission lines of Ca,Mg,Na,K,Fe,Sr,Si,Li and Al.The laser produced plasma was characterized by calculating the electron temperature from the Boltzmann plots and the electron number density from the Stark broadened line profile as a function of laser irradiance and distance from the target sample.The relative concentration of the constituent elements was extracted by the integrated line intensities of the strongest spectral line of each element using the self-calibration-LIBS(SC-LIBS) and one-line calibration free-LIBS(OLCF-LIBS) methods.For cross-validation,the LIBS results have been compared with that obtained from the inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy(ICP-MS) showing good agreement.     

Measurement and analysis of the extreme ultraviolet emission band of laser-produced antimony plasmas

The temporal evolution of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission spectra of laser-produced antimony (Sb) plasmas has been measured in the 7–16 nm wavelength region using spatio- temporally resolved lase-produced plasma spectroscopy technique. The spectral profiles involve an intense quasi-continuous band with superimposed intense characteristic radiation and are different with the increase of delay time. The spectral structures were also analyzed according to Hartree–Fock calculations with configuration interaction effects and contributed from 4d–4f, 4d–4p, and 4d–5f unresolved transition arrays of Sb⁷⁺ – Sb¹³⁺. A steady-state collisional- radiative model was used to estimate the electron temperature and density range of Sb plasmas. This work would enrich the spectral data of highly-charged ions and provided a possible selection for developing EUV light sources.     

The Effect of an External Magnetic Field on the Plume Expansion Dynamics of Laser-Induced Aluminum Plasma

In this work,we investigated the plasma morphology induced by a Nd:YAG laser with the aim of improving the understanding of the formation and dynamics of the plasma in two cases,with and without a magnetic field.Single laser pulse production of a plasma in the absence and presence of a magnetic field was performed with an aluminum target in air.A fast photography technique was employed to obtain information about the expansion dynamics and confinement of the aluminum plasma in each case.The generation of the laser plasma was allowed to expand at two locations with different magnetic field strengths,which correspond to the strength 0.58 T in the center of two magnetic poles and 0.83 T at a distance of 4 mm from the upper pole(N).The plume showed lateral confinement at longer delays when the target was placed at the center of the two poles.When the target was placed at a distance of 4 mm from the upper pole it was observed that the plume was divided into two lobes at the initial stage and traveled towards the center of the magnetic field with further elapse of time.     

EBT reactor magnetics and particle confinement

Optimization of the vacuum magnetic field of an ELMO Bumpy Torus (EBT) reactor is investigated. Several methods of improving reactor volume utilization and single particle confinement are analyzed. These include the use of (a) a large number of sectors and/or a large mirror ratio, (b) high field Nb₃Sn or Nb₃Sn/NbTi hybrid mirror coils, (c) split-wedge mirror coils, (d) axis-encircling aspect ratio enhancement (ARE) coils, and (e) recently developed field symmetrizing (SYM) coils. Of these, particle drift orbit and three-dimensional tensor pressure equilibrium calculations show that the use of SYM coils in conjunction with high field mirror magnets offers the most promise of good plasma performance in reactors that are smaller (by up to 50%) than previous reference designs that did not employ supplementary coils. Aspect ratio enhancement coils also offer an attractive alternative for improved confinement, but they do not have many of the advantages of SYM coils, particularly for reactor applications. Split-wedge mirror coils improve volume utilization and trapped particle confinement, but they do not enhance the confinement of transitional and passing particles. High field magnets improve confinement by permitting a larger mirror ratio and a larger plasma radius by virtue of their smaller cross-sectional area and higher current density. The relative merits of each magnetics configuration are discussed, including the effects on single particle confinement, reactor volume utilization, materials requirements, engineering design considerations, and reactor assembly, maintenance, and accessibility.     

Time-resolved spectroscopy of femtosecond laser-induced Cu plasma with spark discharge

The combination of spark discharge and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is called spark discharge assisted LIBS. It works under laser-plasma triggered spark discharge mode, and shows its ability to enhance spectral emission intensity. This work uses a femtosecond laser as the light source, since femtosecond laser has many advantages in laser-induced plasma compared with nanosecond laser, meanwhile, the study on femtosecond LIBS with spark discharge is rare. Time-resolved spectroscopy of spark discharge assisted femtosecond LIBS was investigated under different discharge voltages and laser energies. The results showed that the spectral intensity was significantly enhanced by using spark discharge compared with LIBS alone. And, the spectral emission intensity using spark discharge assisted LIBS increased with the increase in the laser energy. In addition, at low laser energy, there was an obvious delay on the discharge time compared with high laser energy, and the discharge time with positive voltage was different from that with negative voltage.