title: A compact field-portable double-pulse laser system to enhance laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.
abstract: This paper reports the development of a compact double-pulse laser system to enhance laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for field applications. Pumped by high-power vertical-surface emitting lasers, the laser system that produces 16 ns pulse at 12 mJ/pulse with total weight less than 10 kg is developed. The inter-pulse delay can be adjusted from 0μs with 0.5μs increment. Several LIBS experiments were carried out on NIST standard aluminum alloy samples. Comparing with the single-pulse LIBS, up to 9 times enhancement in atomic emission line was achieved with continuum background emission reduced by 70%. This has led to up to 10 times improvement in the limit of detection. Signal stability was also improved by 128% indicating that a more robust and accurate LIBS measurement can be achieved using a compact double-pulse laser system. This paper presents a viable and field deployable laser tool to dramatically improve the sensitivity and applicability of LIBS for a wide array of applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Aidong
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Rongzhang
authors.identifier: 0000000345822983
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
authors.forename: Yongfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen