Construction of a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Setup

Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a practical spectroscopy to determine the chemical and atomic composition of materials. The third harmonic output of a Nd:YAG Q-switched laser generating 5ns pulses with 10Hz repetition rate was used to ablate the sample and create a micro-plasma. The emission of the radiating plasma was focused into an optical fiber with 0.22 numerical aperture. The spectra was measured with an Ocean Optics micro spectrometer. A synchronized shutter was used to select single laser pulses. In order to reach the breakdown threshold of the sample using the available energy of the laser pulses (\textless 5 mJ) a beam expander and a parabolic mirror was used for tight focusing. The optical and technical details including the characterization of the system will be presented. LIBS spectra taken from a variety of metal and organic samples show appropriate selectivity for quantitative and qualitative analysis for materials.