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Practical laser induced breakdown spectroscopy unit

Practical laser induced breakdown spectroscopy unit description/claims

The invention concerns in general the technology of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. In particular the invention concerns the structure of an apparatus built for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy measurements.

For various applications, methods are needed for determining the material constitution of a sample. One of known methods is laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), which involves focusing a laser beam onto a surface of the sample with a high enough power density to transform a small part of the sample material into a state of plasma. Optical emissions from the plasma plume are collected with light collection optics, and the spectral distribution (i.e. intensity as a function of wavelength) of the collected optical emissions is analysed in a spectrometer that produces information in electronic form describing the spectral distribution. Since atomic and molecular constituents of sample materials have characteristic optical emission spectra, the information produced by the spectrometer forms a kind of a fingerprint of the sample material, revealing the constituents of that part of the sample onto which the laser beam was focused.

The sample may in principle be solid, liquid or gaseous. In the case of a gaseous sample the concept of a “surface” of the sample does not exist, but the laser beam is just focused into the gaseous sample.

LIBS is sometimes also referred to as OES (optical emission spectroscopy), although to be quite exact, the latter is a somewhat wider term and may be understood to cover all kinds of optical emission measurements, irrespective of the mechanism that was used to generate the optical emissions.

Prior art publications that describe LIBS measurements are at least U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,634 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,801,595, of which the latter describes the combination of a LIBS measurement with an XRF (X-ray fluorescence) measurement in the same measurement apparatus. A drawback of the known LIBS measurement devices is certain clumsiness and limited applicability to field use. Traditionally LIBS has been considered to be applicable under laboratory conditions only.

An objective of the present invention is to present a LIBS measurement arrangement and devices that are practical to handle and applicable to field use. Another objective of the invention is to enable LIBS measurements of sample forms and locations that would be difficult or impossible to reach with conventional LIBS measurement devices.

The objectives of the invention are achieved by including all essential components of a LIBS measuring arrangement into a single hand-held unit. Certain further objectives of the invention are easiest to reach by using a passive probe that contains the so-called Q-switch, focusing optics and light collection optics.

An apparatus according to the invention for performing laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is characterised in that it comprises: a handheld unit, a pump laser with a controller, a combination of a solid laser medium and a Q-switch configured to receive a laser beam from said pump laser, focusing optics configured to focus laser pulses from said combination to a sample, light collection optics configured to collect light from plasma induced of sample material by focused laser pulses, a spectrometer configured to receive collected light from said light collection optics and to produce information describing a spectral distribution of such light, and a power source configured to deliver electric power to other parts of the apparatus; wherein said pump laser, said combination, said focusing optics, said light collection optics, said spectrometer and said power source are parts of said handheld unit.

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Patent Applications in related categories:

20090290151 - Analysis of arrays by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy - The present invention relates to the detection of materials using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). This invention discloses methods to draw the analyte of interest in a homogeneous matrix and subsequent analysis of these matrices, wherein the said matrices are preferably arranged in an array format. This invention is particularly ...

20090290152 - Apparatus and method for measuring concentrations of fuel mixtures using depth-resolved laser-induced fluorescence - The apparatus for measuring concentrations of fuel mixtures using depth-resolved laser-induced fluorescence is a fluorometer equipped with a sample container holder that is movable in the path of the beam from the light source. Fluorescent emissions from the sample mixture pass at 90° to the excitation light path through a ...


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Simultaneous spatial and temporal focusing of femtosecond pulses
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Optics: measuring and testing

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