Double pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with femtosecond laser pulses

This paper presents results obtained in a study of collinear geometry double pulse femtosecond LIBS analysis of solids in ambient environment. LIBS signal enhancement of 3-10 fold, accompanied by significant improvement of signal reproducibility, in comparison with the single pulse case, has been found in different samples such as brass, iron, silicon, barium sulfate and aluminum when an optimum temporal separation between the two ablating pulses is used. The influence of the delay between pulses in the LIBS signal intensity was investigated and two intervals of interaction were established. A first transient regime from 0 to 50 ps, in which the LIBS signal increases until reaching a maximum, and a second regime that ranges from 50 to 1000 ps (maximum inter-pulse delay investigated) in which the signal enhancement remains constant. Emissions from both ionized and neutral atoms show the same pattern of enhancement with a clear tendency of lines arising from higher energy emissive states to exhibit higher enhancement factors. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.