Characteristics of laser induced breakdown investigated by a compact, nongated optical multichannel analyzer system and its potential application

Laser induced breakdown is a highly temporally and spatially dynamic phenomenon, normally studied using a highly temporally resolved optical detector system. In this work, a compact, low cost optical multichannel analyzer (OMA) system without a built-in temporal gating device and thus operated under a free running mode was used to investigate the characteristics of laser induced plasma. A Nd-YAG laser beam was used as the excitation source from several samples, namely, copper, zinc, and aluminum plates. The characteristics of the plasma emission produced under various experimental parameters, including the pulse energy, surrounding gas pressure, and collection fiber position, were examined. It was found that the essential features of emission spectra can be investigated even using the ungated, compact OMA system even without a highly temporally resolved gating system. The plasma emission characteristics critically depend on the experimental parameters. A quality emission spectrum, featuring a high intensity with a low background, can be obtained using the ungated, compact OMA system under optimized conditions, namely, a pulse energy of approximately 8 mJ, a surrounding gas pressure of 10 Torr, and a collection fiber position of more than 5 mm above the surface of the sample. The features of the emission spectra detected under optimized conditions are only similar to those obtained using a sophisticated, gated OMA system. The characteristics of the emission spectra are in good agreement with the previous assumption of the shockwave role in plasma excitation. Having quality emission spectra under the optimized conditions, a preliminary practical laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis using the ungated, compact OMA system was performed on several samples, such as standard brass, commercial pure gold, and natural stone samples. The aluminum emission lines are strongly detected from the standard brass sample (C1118) containing aluminum at 2.8%. The LIBS system also unequivocally revealed a qualitatively abandoned impurity presence in the purportedly pure commercial gold sample. It also effectively confirmed qualitatively a Cu presence in the blinking spots of the natural stone collected from a traditional mining site in Aceh. This result implies the effectiveness of the LIBS using the ungated, compact OMA system for quick, practical analysis.