Long range trace detection in aqueous aerosol using remote filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Remote filament induced breakdown spectroscopy (R-FIBS) is used for probing a cloud of microdroplets where table salt has been dissolved. These microdroplets are a good simulant for aerosols. We demonstrated experimentally that R-FIBS can efficiently be used as a ppm-level sensing technique to remotely retrieve the composition of microdroplets in clouds located at a distance. The technique has been successfully tested up to 70 m and, as revealed by extrapolation, showed great potential for kilometer-range application. The proposed technique is sensitive to the solvent as well. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, four hydrogen bands from the Balmer series were observed in an aqueous microdroplet cloud after H₂O molecules were broken by the light filaments. PACS 42.62.Fi; 92.20.Bk; 95.75.Qr     

Remote time-resolved filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy of biological materials

We report, for what we believe to be the first time, on the feasibility of remote time-resolved filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy (FIBS) of biological materials. The fluorescence from egg white and yeast powder, induced by femtosecond laser pulse filamentation in air, was detected in the backward direction with targets located 3.5 m away from the detection system. The remarkably distinct spectra of egg white and yeast allow us to propose that this technique, time-resolved FIBS, could be potentially useful for remote detection and identification of harmful biological agents.     

Remote detection of similar biological materials using femtosecond filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy

We demonstrated the feasibility of remote detection and differentiation of some very similar agricultural-activity related bioaerosols, namely barley, corn, and wheat grain dusts, through nonlinear fluorescence of fragments induced by the high-intensity inside filaments of femtosecond laser pulses in air. The signals were detected in Lidar configuration with targets located at 4.7 m away from the detection system. All the species showed identical spectra, namely those from molecular C₂ and CN bands, as well as atomic Si, C, Mg, Al, Na, Ca, Mn, Fe, Sr and K lines. These identical spectral bands and lines reveal similar chemical compositions; however, the relative intensities of the spectra are different showing different element abundances from these three bio-targets. The intensity ratios of different elemental lines were used to distinguish these three samples. Good reproducibility was obtained. We expect that this technique could be used at long distance and thus played as a sensor of similar biological hazards for public and defense security. PACS 42.68.Wt; 95.75.Fg     

杨树叶片的飞秒等离子体丝诱导击穿光谱研究

开展了杨树叶片的飞秒激光等离子体丝诱导击穿光谱研究, 定性比较分析了长春市区的第一汽车厂、火车站、净月潭公园及长春理工大学四个地理区域的杨树叶片中重金属元素Ca, Fe和Cr. 实验结果表明, 通过分析杨树叶片中Ca Ⅱ 393.37 nm和Fe Ⅰ 422.87 nm光谱谱线可知叶茎中Ca和Fe元素浓度均高于叶肉. 比较长春四个地理区域的杨树叶的飞秒激光等离子体丝诱导击穿光谱, 发现汽车厂附近的杨树叶内重金属Ca, Fe和Cr 元素浓度最高, 净月公园的杨树叶重金属浓度最低. 由于飞秒激光等离子体丝光强度的“光学钳箍”效应, 对于杨树叶片这种表面不平整样品, 仍可获得稳定性较好的等离子体光谱. 飞秒激光等离子体丝诱导光谱技术有望在环境污染在线检测具有广泛的潜在应用.     

Filament-induced breakdown remote spectroscopy in a polar environment

We demonstrate the feasibility of filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy (FIBS) for remote sensing of solid samples in a polar environment. FIBS spectra from an aluminum target induced by 800-nm laser pulses propagating in air were probed. The air visibility in an open winter field was as low as 3.2 km fluctuating with precipitation, pressure and relative humidity. Under such polar condition, clean spectral Al I lines from an aluminum target located at a distance of 60 m were obtained. This shows the technique FIBS could be potentially useful for sensing remote targets in a variety of polar environments.     

Remote filament-induced fluorescence spectroscopy from thin clouds of smoke

Remote filament-induced fluorescence spectroscopy is used to probe a cloud of smoke, produced from burning mosquito coils, located at a distance of 25 m from the laser source and LIDAR detector. CN, CH and C₂ molecular fragments were identified in the sample. We demonstrate that temporally gated measurement is an efficient technique to easily suppress spectral contaminations, such as white light and atmospheric N₂ fluorescence.     

Remote imaging laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and remote cultural heritage ablative cleaning

We report, for what we believe to be the first time, on remote imaging laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Measurements have been performed by using a tripled Nd:YAG laser working at 355 nm with 170 mJ pulse energy, with an expanded beam that is focused onto a target at 60 m distance. The LIBS signal is detected by using an on-axis Newtonian telescope and an optical multichannel analyzer. The imaging is performed by scanning the laser beam on the target. The same setup is also used in demonstrations of remote laser ablation for cleaning of contaminated objects with applications toward cultural heritage.     

Effect of the target positions on the rapid identification of aluminum alloys by using filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy combined with machine learning

Filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy (FIBS) combined with machine learning algorithms was used to identify five aluminum alloys. To study the effect of the distance between focusing lens and target surface on the identification accuracy of aluminum alloys, principal component analysis (PCA) combined with support vector machine (SVM) and K-nearest neighbor (KNN) was used. The intensity and intensity ratio of fifteen lines of six elements (Fe, Si, Mg, Cu, Zn, and Mn) in the FIBS spectrum were selected. The distances between the focusing lens and the target surface in the pre-filament, filament, and post-filament were 958 mm, 976 mm, and 1000 mm, respectively. The source data set was fifteen spectral line intensity ratios, and the cumulative interpretation rates of PC1, PC2, and PC3 were 97.22%, 98.17%, and 95.31%, respectively. The first three PCs obtained by PCA were the input variables of SVM and KNN. The identification accuracy of the different positions of focusing lens and target surface was obtained, and the identification accuracy of SVM and KNN in the filament was 100% and 90%, respectively. The source data set of the filament was obtained by PCA for the first three PCs, which were randomly selected as the training set and test set of SVM and KNN in 3:2. The identification accuracy of SVM and KNN was 97.5% and 92.5%, respectively. The research results can provide a reference for the identification of aluminum alloys by FIBS.     

Water vapor concentration measurement in air using filament-induced fluorescence spectroscopy

Water vapor fluorescence in air induced by femtosecond laser filaments was systematically investigated. The fluorescence signal intensity was found to be linearly proportional to the water vapor concentration, which opens up the possibility of absolute humidity measurements, even remotely.     

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in China

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy （LIBS） has been regarded as a future superstar for chemical analysis for years due to its unique features such as little or no sample preparation, remote sensing, and fast and multi-element analysis. Chinese LIBS comnmnity is one of the most dynamically developing communities in the World. The aim of the work is to inspect what have been done in China for LIBS development and, based on the understanding of the overall status, to identify the challenges and opportunities for the future development. In this paper, the scientific contributions from Chinese LIBS comlnunity are reviewed for the following four aspects： fimdamentals, instrumentation, data processing and modeling, and applications; and the driving force of LIBS development in China is analyzed, the critical issues for successful LIBS application are discussed, and in our opinion, the potential direction to improve the technology and to realize large scale commercialization in China is proposed.     

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in Asia

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an analytical detection technique based on atomic emission spectroscopy to measure the elemental composition. LIBS has been extensively studied and developed due to the non-contact, fast response, high sensitivity, real-time and multi-elemental detection features. The development and applications of LIBS technique in Asia are summarized and discussed in this review paper. The researchers in Asia work on different aspects of the LIBS study in fundamentals, data processing and modeling, applications and instrumentations. According to the current research status, the challenges, opportunities and further development of LIBS technique in Asia are also evaluated to promote LIBS research and its applications.     

Ultraviolet laser filaments for remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis: applications in cultural heritage monitoring

We report experiments with subpicosecond UV laser filaments for the remote analysis of samples related to objects of cultural heritage. The classic laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique finds new avenues through femtosecond filamentation, and dynamic remote LIBS becomes possible. Advantages such as self-regulated laser intensity deposition on the target suggest that there is significant potential for using UV femtosecond filaments for the remote analysis of sculpture and large monuments.     

Detection of explosives with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Our recent work on the detection of explosives by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is reviewed in this paper. We have studied the physical mechanism of laser-induced plasma of an organic explosive, TNT. The LIBS spectra of TNT under single-photon excitation are simulated using MATLAB. The variations of the atomic emission lines intensities of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen versus the plasma temperature are simulated too. We also investigate the time-resolved LIBS spectra of a common inorganic explosive, black powder, in two kinds of surrounding atmospheres, air and argon, and find that the maximum value of the O atomic emission line SBR of black powder occurs at a gate delay of 596 ns. Another focus of our work is on using chemometic methods such as principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) to distinguish the organic explosives from organic materials such as plastics. A PLS-DA model for classification is built. TNT and seven types of plastics are chosen as samples to test the model. The experimental results demonstrate that LIBS coupled with the chemometric techniques has the capacity to discriminate organic explosive from plastics.     

一种针对激光诱导击穿光谱技术的基线校正方法

针对激光诱导击穿光谱(laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy,LIBS)数据中存在的周期性拱形突起问题,提出了一种改进的基线校正算法。该算法基于惩罚最小二乘方法,通过改变局部惩罚系数,使其在拟合周期性拱形突起的同时降低谱线强度对拟合基线的影响。与其他基线校正方法相比,该算法在拟合仿真基线时的均方根误差更小,并且基于该算法得到光谱数据绘制的定标曲线的相关系数达到了0.997 2。结果表明：该算法相较于现有的去基线方法,在拟合中阶梯光栅光谱仪采集激光诱导击穿光谱的基线时,能更好地保留光谱数据的有效信息。     

Biomedical and environmental applicationsof laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emerging analytical technique with numerous advantages such as rapidity, multi-elemental analysis, minimal sample preparation, minimal destruction, low cost and versatility of being applied to a wide range of materials. In this paper, we report the preliminary observations we obtained using LIBS for clinical and environmental samples. Elemental analysis has been done qualitatively in human teeth samples which show encouraging results. It has also been demonstrated in this paper that LIBS can be very well utilized in field applications such as plastic waste sorting and recycling.     

激光诱导击穿光谱在塑料分类中的应用

利用波长为266 nm紫外激光器获得四大类塑料样品(HDPE,LDPE,PET,NYLON)的诱导击穿等离子光谱(波长范围652～780 nmn),以NIST原子发射谱线数据库作为参考,对其中的主要元素特征谱线进行标定.采用化学计量学中的主成分分析法对光谱数据进行处理,并通过交互验证法建立样品的主成分分析模型,分析主成...     

激光诱导击穿光谱技术及应用研究进展

激光诱导击穿光谱（LIBS）技术是一种基于原子发射光谱学的元素定性、定量检测手段。本文介绍了LIBS技术的原理、应用方式、检测元素种类及检测极限;综述了该项技术在固体、液体、气体组分检测方面的技术发展,以及在环境检测、食品安全、生物医药、材料、军事、太空领域的应用进展。最后,提出了高功率、高稳定的激光光源和准确的定量分析方法是LIBS技术目前所面临的问题和挑战。     

Controlled calibration method for laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a potential technique for rapid analysis of samples present in solids, gases and liquids. In the last two decades it was an object of extensive studies. Controlled calibration method used to analysis the LIBS spectra is investigated. Compared with the inner calibration and calibration-free (CF) methods, this new method overcomes "matrix effect", and demonstrates a better ability to cope with the spectra. It is used to analyze natural soil, and errors of the concentration are decreased about 5%. The result shows that the new method is feasible and accurate.     

利用激光诱导击穿光谱分析土壤成份

搭建了一套激光诱导击穿光谱实验装置,并通过配置特定样品,开展了一系列激光诱导击穿光谱探测实验。根据含有不同质量分数的同种元素样品的激光诱导击穿光谱实验结果,获得元素质量分数与谱线强度的关系曲线(定标曲线)。对中南民族大学附近的土壤进行激光诱导击穿光谱实验,发现土壤中含有Mg,Ca,Na等18种元素,对河南云台山茱萸峰岩石的激光诱导击穿光谱实验结果仅获得Fe,Mg,Ca 3种金属元素。比较这2种实际样品的激光诱导击穿光谱结果表明,检测样品的物理结构影响激光诱导光谱的实验结果。     

Plasma stoichiometry correction method in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

The spectra correction approach for the quantitative analysis of alloys by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy was proposed. A disproportion between the composition of the laser-plasma plume and the bulk sample is explained by the selective evaporation of components during the melting-evaporation stage. The Batanov-Bunkin-Prohorov-Fedorov phenomenon of the transparent wave propagation in a melted metal during the laser ablation was accounted for by the discussed approach. The proposed spectra correction procedure gives good results for the composition measurement of the Al alloy.