Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in gases using ungated detection in combination with polarization filtering and online background correction

Quantitative and fast analysis of gas mixtures is an important task in the field of chemical, security and environmental analysis. In this paper we present a diagnostic approach based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). A polarization filter in the signal collection system enables sufficient suppression of elastically scattered light which otherwise reduces the dynamic range of the measurement. Running the detector with a doubled repetition rate as compared to the laser online background correction is obtained. Quantitative measurements of molecular air components in synthetic, ambient and expiration air are performed and demonstrate the potential of the method. The detection limits for elemental oxygen and hydrogen are in the order of 15 ppm and 10 ppm, respectively.