Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

The formation of the plasma only begins when the focused laser achieves a certain threshold for optical breakdown, which generally depends on the environment and the target material.

Results presented by ARL suggest that LIBS may be able to discriminate between energetic and non-energetic materials.

Designed for material analysis, the spectrometer allowed the LIBS system to be sensitive to chemical elements in low concentration.

As of 2015[update], recent research on LIBS focuses on compact and (man-)portable systems.

If the pulse duration is long, the newly ionized electrons can be accelerated and eventually avalanche or cascade ionization follows.

Fortunately, due to the delicately balanced behavior of the pulses in dense media, the threshold cannot be reached easily.

[citation needed] The phenomenon responsible for the balance is the intensity clamping[13] through the onset of filamentation process during the propagation of strong laser pulses in dense media.

A potentially important development to LIBS involves the use of a short laser pulse as a spectroscopic source.

[14] In this method, a plasma column is created as a result of focusing ultrafast laser pulses in a gas.

The self-luminous plasma is far superior in terms of low level of continuum and also smaller line broadening.

Recently, LIBS has been investigated as a fast, micro-destructive food analysis tool.

Milk, bakery products, tea, vegetable oils, water, cereals, flour, potatoes, palm date and different types of meat have been analyzed using LIBS.

[21] In 2019, researchers of the University of York and of the Liverpool John Moores University employed LIBS for studying 12 European oysters (Ostrea edulis, Linnaeus, 1758) from the Late Mesolithic shell midden at Conors Island (Republic of Ireland).

The results highlighted the applicability of LIBS to determine prehistoric seasonality practices as well as biological age and growth at an improved rate and reduced cost than was previously achievable.