Spectroscopy of Laser-Induced Dielectric Breakdown Plasma in Mixtures of Air with Inert Gases Ar, He, Kr, and Xe.

The generation of ozone and nitrogen oxides by laser-induced dielectric breakdown (LIDB) in mixtures of air with noble gases Ar, He, Kr, and Xe is investigated using OES and IR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and absorption spectrophotometry. It is shown that the formation of NO and NO2 noticeably depends on the type of inert gas; the more complex electronic configuration and the lower ionization potential of the inert gas led to increased production of NO and NO2. The formation of ozone occurs mainly due to the photolytic reaction outside the gas discharge zone. Equilibrium thermodynamic analysis showed that the formation of NO in mixtures of air with inert gases does not depend on the choice of an inert gas, while the equilibrium concentration of the NO+ ion decreases with increasing complexity of the electronic configuration of an inert gas.

Intrinsic Performance of Monte Carlo Calibration-Free Algorithm for Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy.

The performance of the Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm for calibration-free LIBS was studied on the example of a simulated spectrum that mimics a metallurgical slag sample. The underlying model is that of a uniform, isothermal, and stationary plasma in local thermodynamical equilibrium. Based on the model, the algorithm generates from hundreds of thousands to several millions of simultaneous configurations of plasma parameters and the corresponding number of spectra. The parameters are temperature, plasma size, and concentrations of species. They are iterated until a cost function, which indicates a difference between synthetic and simulated slag spectra, reaches its minimum. After finding the minimum, the concentrations of species are read from the model and compared to the certified values. The algorithm is parallelized on a graphical processing unit (GPU) to reduce computational time. The minimization of the cost function takes several minutes on the GPU NVIDIA Tesla K40 card and depends on the number of elements to be iterated. The intrinsic accuracy of the MC calibration-free method is found to be around 1% for the eight elements tested. For a real experimental spectrum, however, the efficiency may turn out to be worse due to the idealistic nature of the model, as well as incorrectly chosen experimental conditions. Factors influencing the performance of the method are discussed.

Spatiotemporal spectroscopic characterization of plasmas induced by non-orthogonal laser ablation.

Ablation geometry significantly affects the plasma parameters and the consequent spectroscopic observations in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. Nevertheless, plasmas induced by laser ablation under inclined incidence angles are studied to a significantly lesser extent compared to plasmas induced by standard orthogonal ablation. However, inclined ablation is prominent in stand-off applications, such as the Curiosity Mars rover, where the orthogonality of the ablation laser pulse cannot be always secured. Thus, in this work, we characterize non-orthogonal ablation plasmas by applying plasma imaging, tomography, and spectral measurements. We confirm earlier observations according to which non-orthogonal ablation leads to a laser-induced plasma that consists of two distinct parts: one expanding primarily along the incident laser pulse and one expanding along the normal of the sample surface. Moreover, we confirm that the former emits mainly continuum radiation, while the latter emits mainly sample-specific characteristic radiation. We further investigate and compare the homogeneity of the plasmas and report that inclined ablation affects principally the ionic emissivity of laser-induced plasmas. Overall, our results imply that the decreased fluence resulting from inclined angle ablation and the resulting inhomogeneities of the plasmas must be considered for quantitative LIBS employing non-orthogonal ablation.

Laser-induced plasma imaging for low-pressure detection.

A novel technique based on laser induced plasma imaging is proposed to measure residual pressure in sealed containers with transparent walls, e.g. high voltage vacuum interrupter in this paper. The images of plasma plumes induced on a copper target at pressure of ambient air between 10-2Pa and 105Pa were acquired at delay times of 200ns, 400ns, 600ns and 800ns. All the plasma images at specific pressures and delay times showed a good repeatability. It was found that ambient gas pressure significantly affects plasma shape, plasma integral intensities and expansion dynamics. A subsection characteristic method was proposed to extract pressure values from plasma images. The method employed three metrics for identification of high, intermediate and low pressures: the distance between the target and plume center, the integral intensity of the plume, and the lateral size of the plume, correspondingly. The accuracy of the method was estimated to be within 15% of nominal values in the entire pressure range between 10-2Pa and 105Pa. The pressure values can be easily extracted from plasma images in the whole pressure range, thus making laser induced plasma imaging a promising technique for gauge-free pressure detection.

Characterization of an Airborne Laser-Spark Ion Source for Ambient Mass Spectrometry.

An airborne laser plasma is suggested as an ambient ion source for mass spectrometry. Its fundamental physical properties, such as an excellent spatial and temporal definition, high electron and ion densities and a high effective cross section in maintaining the plasma, make it a promising candidate for future applications. For deeper insights into the plasma properties, the optical plasma emission is examined and compared to mass spectra. The results show a seemingly contradictory behavior, since the emitted light reports the plasma to almost entirely consist of hot elemental ions, while the corresponding mass spectra exhibit the formation of intact molecular species. Further experiments, including time-resolved shadowgraphy, spatially resolved mass spectrometry, as well as flow-dependent emission spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, suggest the analyte molecules to be formed in the cold plasma vicinity upon interaction with reactive species formed inside the hot plasma center. Spatial separation is maintained by concentrically expanding pressure waves, inducing a strong unidirectional diffusion. The accompanying rarefaction inside the plasma center can be compensated by a gas stream application. This replenishing results in a strong increase in emission brightness, in local reactive species concentration, and eventually in direct mass spectrometric sensitivity. To determine the analytical performance of the new technique, a comparison with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source was conducted. Two kitchen herbs, namely, spearmint and basil, were analyzed without any sample pretreatment. The presented results demonstrate a considerably higher sensitivity of the presented laser-spark ionization technique.

Stimulated emission in aluminum laser-induced plasma: an experimental study.

The stimulated emission (SE) in aluminum laser-induced plasma pumped in resonance with the 3s23p-3s24s aluminum transition at 266.04 nm is investigated experimentally. It is shown that the population inversion between the 3s23p and 3s24s states can be created by weak pumping at several microjoule to millijoule pulse energies and result in high gain. The intensity of the SE at 396.15 nm is related to the number density of Al atoms via absorption measurements. It is found that the SE in forward and backward directions with respect to the pumping laser is different in terms of the line shape and intensity that is attributed to inhomogeneity in a gain coefficient across the plasma plume.

Stimulated emission in aluminum laser-induced plasma: kinetic model of population inversion.

The stimulated emission (SE) in aluminum laser-induced plasma pumped in resonance with the 3s23p-3s24s aluminum transition at 266.04 nm is modeled. A collisional-radiative plasma model based on kinetic equations is proposed to explain the creation of the population inversion and lasing. The model predicts fast depopulation of the ground 3s23p state by the absorption of resonant laser light at 266 nm and very fast population of the excited 3s24s state by the cascade transitions from the laser-pumped level, which is driven optically and by collisions. The SE of the 3s23p-3s24s transition at 396.15 nm is studied and possible SE at 1.3 and 2.1 µm is predicted. It is confirmed by calculations that the population inversion between the 3s23p and 3s24s states can be created by weak pumping at several microjoule-millijoule pulse energies and results in high gain.

Insight into the formation of molecular species in laser-induced plasma of isotopically labeled organic samples.

Recently, the detection of molecular species in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has gained increasing interest, particularly for isotopic analysis. In LIBS of organic materials, it is predominantly CN and C2 species that are formed, and multiple mechanisms may contribute to their formation. To gain deeper insight into the formation of these species, laser-induced plasma of (13)C and (15)N labeled organic materials was investigated in a temporally and spatially resolved manner. LIBS on fumaric acid with a (13)C labeled double bond allowed the formation mechanism of C2 to be investigated by analyzing relative signal intensities of (12)C2, (12)C(13)C, and (13)C2 molecules. In the early plasma (<5 µs), the majority of C2 originates from association of completely atomized target molecules, whereas in the late plasma, the increased concentration of (13)C2 is due to incomplete dissociation of the carbon double bond. The degree of this fragmentation was found to be up to 80% and to depend on the type of the atmospheric gas. Spatial distributions of C2 revealed distinct differences for plasma generated in nitrogen and argon. A study of the interaction of ablated organics with ambient nitrogen showed that the ambient nitrogen contributed mainly to CN formation. The pronounced anisotropy of the C(15)N to C(14)N ratio across the diameter of the plasma was observed in the early plasma, indicating poor initial mixing of the plasma with the ambient gas. Overall, for accurate isotope analysis of organics, LIBS in argon with relatively short integration times (<10 µs) provides the most robust results. On the other hand, if information about the original molecular structure is of interest, then experiments in nitrogen (or air) with long integration times appear to be the most promising.

EXPRESS: Landmark Publications in Analytical Atomic Spectrometry: Fundamentals and Instrumentation Development.

The almost-two-centuries history of spectrochemical analysis has generated a body of literature so vast that it has become nearly intractable for experts, much less for those wishing to enter the field. Authoritative, focused reviews help to address this problem but become so granular that the overall directions of the field are lost. This broader perspective can be provided partially by general overviews but then the thinking, experimental details, theoretical underpinnings and instrumental innovations of the original work must be sacrificed. In the present compilation, this dilemma is overcome by assembling the most impactful publications in the area of analytical atomic spectrometry. Each entry was proposed by at least one current expert in the field and supported by a narrative that justifies its inclusion. The entries were then assembled into a coherent sequence and returned to contributors for a round-robin review.

Multivariate classification of pigments and inks using combined Raman spectroscopy and LIBS.

The authenticity of objects and artifacts is often the focus of forensic analytic chemistry. In document fraud cases, the most important objective is to determine the origin of a particular ink. Here, we introduce a new approach which utilizes the combination of two analytical methods, namely Raman spectroscopy and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The methods provide complementary information on both molecular and elemental composition of samples. The potential of this hyphenation of spectroscopic methods is demonstrated for ten blue and black ink samples on white paper. LIBS and Raman spectra from different inks were fused into a single data matrix, and the number of different groups of inks was determined through multivariate analysis, i.e., principal component analysis, soft independent modelling of class analogy, partial least-squares discriminant analysis, and support vector machine. In all cases, the results obtained with the combined LIBS and Raman spectra were found to be superior to those obtained with the individual Raman or LIBS data sets.

Fraunhofer-type absorption lines in double-pulse laser-induced plasma.

We studied the confocal double-pulse laser-induced plasma in the very beginning of its life. It was found that the second laser pulse fired 0.7 to 5 µs after the first pulse produces plasma which, during the first 0 to 20 ns, resembles solar configuration. There is a very hot and compact plasma core that radiates a broad continuum spectrum and a much larger and cooler outer shell. The light from the hot core passes through the cold outer shell and is partly absorbed by atoms and ions that are in ground (or close to ground) states. This produces absorption lines that are similar to Fraunhofer lines observed in the sun spectrum. The possibility to use these absorption lines for new direct and calibration free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy analytical applications, both in laboratory and industrial conditions, is proved.

Tomography of double-pulse laser-induced plasmas in the orthogonal geometry.

The temporal evolution of laser-induced plasmas is studied in the orthogonal double-pulse arrangement. Both the pre-ablation mode (an air spark is induced above the sample surface prior to the ablation pulse) and the re-heating mode (additional energy is delivered into the plasma created by the ablation pulse) is considered. The plasmas are investigated in terms of the temporal evolution of their electron density, temperature, and volume. The plasma volumes are determined using a time-resolved tomography technique based on the Radon transformation. The reconstruction is carried out for both white-light and band-pass filtered emissivities. The white-light reconstruction corresponds to the overall size of the plasmas. On the other hand, the band-pass emissivity reconstruction shows the distribution of the atomic sample species (Cu I). Moreover, through spectrally resolved tomographic reconstruction, the spatial homogeneity of the electron density and temperature of the plasmas is also investigated at various horizontal slices of the plasmas. Our results show that the pre-ablation geometry yields a more temporally stable and spatially uniform plasma, which could be beneficial for calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) approaches. On the contrary, the plasma generated in the re-heating geometry exhibits significant variations in electron density and temperature along its vertical axis. Overall, our results shed further light on the mechanisms involved in the LIBS signal enhancement using double-pulse ablation.

Deuterium analysis by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry using polyatomic species: An experimental study supported by plasma chemistry modeling.

A new analytical method is proposed for the determination of deuterium (D) by ICP-MS. The method is based on the use of the signal from hydrogen-containing polyatomic ions formed in the inductively coupled plasma. Prior to analytical experiments, a theoretical study was performed to assess the concentration of polyatomic species present in an equilibrium Ar-O-D-H plasma, as a function of temperature and stoichiometric composition. It was established that the highest sensitivity and linearity measurement of D concentration in a wide range can be achieved by monitoring the ions of D2 and ArD, at masses 4 and 42, respectively. Results of the calculations are in good agreement with the experiments. Signal stability, spectral interferences, as well as the effect of plasma parameters were also assessed. Under optimized conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 3 ppm atom fraction for deuterium when measured as ArD (in calcium and potassium free water), or 78 ppm when measured as D2. The achieved LOD values and the 4 to 5 orders of magnitude dynamic range easily allow the measurement of deuterium concentrations at around or above the natural level, up to nearly 100% (or 1 Mio ppm) in a standard quadrupole ICP-MS instrument. An even better performance is expected from the method in high resolution ICP-MS instruments equipped with low dead volume sample introduction systems.

Analysis and Classification of Liquid Samples Using Spatial Heterodyne Raman Spectroscopy.

Spatial heterodyne spectroscopy (SHS) is used for quantitative analysis and classification of liquid samples. SHS is a version of a Michelson interferometer with no moving parts and with diffraction gratings in place of mirrors. The instrument converts frequency-resolved information into a spatially resolved one and records it in the form of interferograms. The back-extraction of spectral information is done by the fast Fourier transform. A SHS instrument is constructed with the resolving power 5000 and spectral range 522-593 nm. Two original technical solutions are used as compared to previous SHS instruments: the use of a high-frequency diode-pumped solid-state laser for excitation of Raman spectra and a microscope-based collection system. Raman spectra are excited at 532 nm at the repetition rate 80 kHz. Raman shifts between 330 cm-1 and 1600 cm-1 are measured. A new application of SHS is demonstrated: for the first time, it is used for quantitative Raman analysis to determine concentrations of cyclohexane in isopropanol and glycerol in water. Two calibration strategies are employed: univariate based on the construction of a calibration plot and multivariate based on partial least squares regression. The detection limits for both cyclohexane in isopropanol and glycerol in water are at a 0.5 mass% level. In addition to the Raman-SHS chemical analysis, classification of industrial oils (biodiesel, poly(1-decene), gasoline, heavy oil IFO380, polybutenes, and lubricant) is performed using the Raman-fluorescence spectra of the oils and principal component analysis. The oils are easily discriminated showing distinct non-overlapping patterns in the principal component space.

Measurement and modeling of ozone and nitrogen oxides produced by laser breakdown in oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres.

The production of ozone nad nitrogen oxides was studied during multiple laser breakdown in oxygen-nitrogen mixtures at atmospheric pressure. About 2000 laser shots at 10(10) W cm-2 were delivered into a sealed reaction chamber. The chamber with a long capillary was designed to measure absorption of O3, NO, and NO2 as a function of the number of laser shots. The light source for absorption measurements was the continuum radiation emitted by the plasma during the first 0.2 microsecond of its evolution. A kinetic model was developed that encompassed the principal chemical reactions between the major atmospheric components and the products of laser breakdown. In the model, the laser plasma was treated as a source of nitric oxide and atomic oxygen, whose rates of production were calculated using measured absorption by NO, NO2, and O3. The calculated concentration profiles for NO, NO2, and O3 were in good agreement with measured profiles over a time scale of 0-200 s. The steady-state concentration of ozone was measured in a flow cell in air. For a single breakdown in air, the estimated steady-state yield of ozone was 2 x 10(12) molecules, which agreed with the model prediction. This study can be of importance for general understanding of laser plasma chemistry and for elucidating the nature of spectral interferences and matrix effects that may take place in applied spectrochemical analysis.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy combined with spatial heterodyne spectroscopy.

A spatial heterodyne spectrometer (SHS) is tested for the first time in combination with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The spectrometer is a modified version of the Michelson interferometer in which mirrors are replaced by diffraction gratings. The SHS contains no moving parts and the gratings are fixed at equal distances from the beam splitter. The main advantage is high throughput, about 200 times higher than that of dispersive spectrometers used in LIBS. This makes LIBS-SHS a promising technique for low-light standoff applications. The output signal of the SHS is an interferogram that is Fourier-transformed to retrieve the original plasma spectrum. In this proof-of-principle study, we investigate the potential of LIBS-SHS for material classification and quantitative analysis. Brass standards with broadly varying concentrations of Cu and Zn were tested. Classification via principal component analysis (PCA) shows distinct groupings of materials according to their origin. The quantification via partial least squares regression (PLS) shows good precision (relative standard deviation < 10%) and accuracy (within ± 5% of nominal concentrations). It is possible that LIBS-SHS can be developed into a portable, inexpensive, rugged instrument for field applications.

High repetition rate laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy using acousto-optically gated detection.

This contribution introduces a new type of setup for fast sample analysis using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The novel design combines a high repetition rate laser (up to 50 kHz) as excitation source and an acousto-optical modulator (AOM) as a fast switch for temporally gating the detection of the emitted light. The plasma radiation is led through the active medium of the AOM where it is diffracted on the transient ultrasonic Bragg grid. The diffracted radiation is detected by a compact Czerny-Turner spectrometer equipped with a CCD line detector. Utilizing the new combination of high repetition rate lasers and AOM gated detection, rapid measurements with total integration times of only 10 ms resulted in a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.13 wt.% for magnesium in aluminum alloys. This short integration time corresponds to 100 analyses/s. Temporal gating of LIP radiation results in improved LODs and consecutively higher sensitivity of the LIBS setup. Therefore, an AOM could be beneficially utilized to temporally detect plasmas induced by high repetition rate lasers. The AOM in combination with miniaturized Czerny-Turner spectrometers equipped with CCD line detectors and small footprint diode pumped solid state lasers results in temporally gateable compact LIBS setups.

Diagnostic of laser-induced plasma using Abel inversion and radiation modeling.

A method based on matching synthetic and experimental emissivity spectra was applied to spatially resolved measurements of a laser-induced plasma ignited in argon at atmospheric pressure. The experimental emissivity spectra were obtained by Abel inversion of intensity spectra measured from a thin plasma slice perpendicular to the plasma axis. The synthetic spectra were iteratively calculated from an equilibrium model of plasma radiation that included free-free, free-bound, and bound-bound transitions. From both the experimental and synthetic emissivity spectra, spatial and temporal distributions of plasma temperature and number densities of plasma species (atoms, ions, and electrons) were obtained and compared. For the best-fit synthetic spectra, the temperature and number densities were read directly from the model; for experimental spectra, these parameters were obtained by traditional Boltzmann plot and Stark broadening methods. In both cases, the same spectroscopic data were used. Two approaches revealed a close agreement in electron number densities, but differences in plasma excitation temperatures and atom number densities. The trueness of the two methods was tested by the direct Abel transform that reconstructed the original intensity spectra for comparing them to the measured spectra. The comparison yielded a 9 and 13% difference between the reconstructed and experimental spectra for the numerical and traditional methods, respectively. It was thus demonstrated that the spectral fit method is capable of providing more accurate plasma diagnostics than the Boltzmann plot and Stark broadening methods.

Generalization of a new calibration method based on linear correlation.

This paper communicates modifications to our new calibration method based on linear correlation, described in detail in a former paper [Spectrochim. Acta 56B, 1159], which extend its applicability. The presented, generalized linear correlation method (GLCM) can be applied in any spectroscopic method for quantitation, and also when multielemental, trace solutions are analyzed and the analysis is not complete. Applications of the method to UV-Vis spectrophotometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) are also presented. The method showed a good, typically 1-5%, accuracy in all applications.

Species differentiation of a diverse suite of Bacillus spores by mass spectrometry-based protein profiling.

In this study, we demonstrate the versatility of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS) protein profiling for the species differentiation of a diverse suite of Bacillus spores. MALDI-TOFMS protein profiles of 11 different strains of Bacillus spores, encompassing nine different species, were evaluated. Bacillus species selected for MALDI-TOFMS analysis represented the spore-forming bacterial diversity of typical class 100K clean room spacecraft assembly facilities. A one-step sample treatment and MALDI-TOFMS preparation were used to minimize the sample preparation time. A library of MALDI-TOFMS spectra was created from these nine Bacillus species, the most diverse protein profiling study of the genus reported to date. Linear correlation analysis was used to successfully differentiate the MALDI-TOFMS protein profiles from all strains evaluated in this study. The MALDI-TOFMS protein profiles were compared with 16S rDNA sequences for their bacterial systematics and molecular phylogenetic affiliations. The MALDI-TOFMS profiles were found to be complementary to the 16S rDNA analysis. Proteomic studies of Bacillus subtilis 168 were pursued to identify proteins represented by the biomarker peaks in the MALDI-TOFMS spectrum. Four small, acid-soluble proteins (A, B, C, and D), one DNA binding protein, hypothetical protein ymf J, and four proteins associated with the spore coat and spore coat formation (coat JB, coat F, coat T, and spoIVA) were identified. The ability to visualize higher-molecular-mass coat proteins (10 to 25 kDa) as well as smaller proteins (<10 kDa) with MALDI-TOFMS profiling is critical for the complete and effective species differentiation of the Bacillus genus.