Publication details
Application of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for high-resolution elemental mapping
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is an analytical technique based on spectroscopic analysis of radiation, which is emitted by a micro-plasma induced on the analyte surface by a laser pulse. In comparison to another advanced analytical techniques LIBS has several advantages. It allows analysis of samples in any state of matter practically in real-time and in-situ, without or with a limited sample preparation. It can be used for chemical mapping or chemical imaging of solid samples, i.e. it can provide the information about the surface distribution of the individual chemical elements in the analyzed area in a very clear visual form. With certain limitations, the resulting chemical map may contain spectroscopic trace of all chemical elements present in the sample. The spatial resolution can go down to tens or even units of microns with limit of detection usually in tens to hundreds of ppm. Another advantage of LIBS is that it allows depth-profiling. Elemental analysis with appropriate depth resolution for selected samples using another advanced analytical techniques as e.g. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) can be problematic. If it is requested, remote or stand-off sensing and elemental mapping using LIBS is also possible1. Despite the fact that there are still some drawbacks, e.g. the problematic quantitative analysis, matrix effect and relatively poor limits of detection (LOD, generally 1-100 ppm), LIBS has become a respected technique, complementary to another well-known techniques of chemical material analysis, such as Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass/Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-MS/OES), XRF and many others. Here we report on advantages and limitations of using LIBS for high-resolution elemental mapping with a special emphasis on some selected applications. The combination of LIBS with micro computed tomography (uCT) for high-resolution 3D mapping will be also detailed. |
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