title: Characterization of near-infrared low energy ultra-short laser pulses for portable applications of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.
abstract: We report on the delivery of low energy ultra-short (<1 ps) laser pulses for laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Ultra-short pulses have the advantage of high peak irradiance even at very low pulse energies. This opens the possibility to use compact, rare-earth doped fiber lasers in a portable platform for point detection applications using LIBS for elemental analysis. The use of low energy ultra-short pulses minimizes the generation of a broad continuum background in the emission spectrum, which permits the use of non-gated detection schemes using very simple and compact spectrometers. The pulse energies used to produce high-quality LIBS spectra in this investigation are some of the lowest reported and we investigate the threshold pulse requirements for a number of near IR pulse wavelengths (785-1500 nm) and observe that the pulse wavelength has no effects on the threshold for observation of plasma emission or the quality of the emission spectra obtained.
authors: Alexander W
authors: AW
authors: Schill
authors: David A
authors: DA
authors: Heaps
authors: Dimitra N
authors: DN
authors: Stratis-Cullum
authors: Bradley R
authors: BR
authors: Arnold
authors: Paul M
authors: PM
authors: Pellegrino