|
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a type of atomic emission spectroscopy which uses a highly energetic laser pulse as the excitation source. The laser is focused to form a plasma, which atomizes and excites samples. In principle, LIBS can analyse any matter regardless of its physical state, be it solid, liquid or gas. Because all elements emit light of characteristic frequencies when excited to sufficiently high temperatures, LIBS can (in principle) detect all elements, limited only by the power of the laser as well as the sensitivity and wavelength range of the spectrograph & detector. If the constituents of a material to be analyzed are known, LIBS may be used to evaluate the relative abundance of each constituent element, or to monitor the presence of impurities. In practice, detection limits are a function of a) the plasma excitation temperature, b) the light collection window, and c) the line strength of the viewed transition. LIBS makes use of optical emission spectrometry and is to this extent very similar to arc/spark emission spectroscopy. LIBS operates by focusing the laser onto a small area at the surface of the specimen; when the laser is discharged it ablates a very small amount of material, in the range of nanograms to picograms, which generates a plasma plume with temperatures in excess of 100,000 K. During data collection, typically after local thermodynamic equilibrium is established, plasma temperatures range from 5,000–20,000 K. At the high temperatures during the early plasma, the ablated material dissociates (breaks down) into excited ionic and atomic species. During this time, the plasma emits a continuum of radiation which does not contain any useful information about the species present, but within a very small timeframe the plasma expands at supersonic velocities and cools. At this point the characteristic atomic emission lines of the elements can be observed. The delay between the emission of continuum radiation and characteristic radiation is in the order of 10 µs, this is why it is necessary to temporally gate the detector. LIBS can often be referred to as its alternative name: laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS). The term LIPS has alternative meanings that are outside the field of analytical spectroscopy, therefore the term LIBS is preferred. LIBS is technically very similar to a number of other laser-based analytical techniques, sharing much of the same hardware. These techniques are the vibrational spectroscopic technique of Raman spectroscopy, and the fluorescence spectroscopic technique of laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). In fact devices are now being manufactured which combine these techniques in a single instrument, allowing the atomic, molecular and structural characterisation of a specimen as well as giving a deeper insight into physical properties. ==Design== A typical LIBS system consists of a Nd:YAG solid-state laser and a spectrometer with a wide spectral range and a high sensitivity, fast response rate, time gated detector. This is coupled to a computer which can rapidly process and interpret the acquired data. As such LIBS is one of the most experimentally simple spectroscopic analytical techniques, making it one of the cheapest to purchase and to operate. The Nd:YAG laser generates energy in the near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, with a wavelength of 1064 nm. The pulse duration is in the region of 10 ns generating a power density which can exceed 1 GW·cm−2 at the focal point. Other lasers have been used for LIBS, mainly the Excimer (Excited dimer) type that generates energy in the visible and ultraviolet regions. The spectrometer consists of either a monochromator (scanning) or a polychromator (non-scanning) and a photomultiplier or CCD detector respectively. The most common monochromator is the Czerny-Turner type whilst the most common polychromator is the Echelle type. However, even the Czerny-Turner type can be (and is often) used to disperse the radiation onto a CCD effectively making it a polychromator. The polychromator spectrometer is the type most commonly used in LIBS as it allows simultaneous acquisition of the entire wavelength range of interest. The spectrometer collects electromagnetic radiation over the widest wavelength range possible, maximising the number of emission lines detected for each particular element. Spectrometer response is typically from 1100 nm (near infrared) to 170 nm (deep ultraviolet), the approximate response range of a CCD detector. All elements have emission lines within this wavelength range. The energy resolution of the spectrometer can also affect the quality of the LIBS measurement, since high resolution systems can separate spectral emission lines in close juxtaposition, reducing interference and increasing selectivity. This feature is particularly important in specimens which have a complex matrix, containing a large number of different elements. Accompanying the spectrometer and detector is a delay generator which accurately gates the detector's response time, allowing temporal resolution of the spectrum. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|