Signal Detection of Carbon in Iron-Based Alloy by Double-Pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopysupported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51374040) and the National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project of China (No. 2014YQ120351)

• Published in: Plasma science & technology Vol. 17; no. 11; pp. 953 - 957
• Main Authors: Lin, Xiaomei, Li, Han, Yao, Qinghua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and IOP Publishing 01.11.2015
• Subjects: carbon; DP-LIBS; iron-based alloy; signal detection
• DOI: 10.1088/1009-0630/17/11/12
• ISSN: 1009-0630

Although single-pulse lasers are often used in traditional laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements, their measurement outcomes are generally undesirable because of the low sensitivity of carbon in iron-based alloys. In this article, a double-pulse laser was applied to improve the signal intensity of carbon. Both the inter-pulse delay and the combination of laser wavelengths in double-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (DP-LIBS) were optimized in our experiment. At the optimized inter-pulse delay, the combination of a first laser of 532 nm and a second laser of 1,064 nm achieved the highest signal enhancement. The properties of the target also played a role in determining the mass ablation enhancement in DP-LIBS configuration.