Spatio-temporal evaluation of Zr plasma parameters in a single-beam-splitting double-pulse laser-induced plasma

The plasma shielding effect is one of the major weaknesses of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) as it causes non-linearity in signal strength. Although LIBS is typically carried out in constant laser energy, this non-linearity causes a reduction in sensitivity. In this work, we systematically examine laser-induced plasma, formed by two different excitation source modes, i.e. single pulse(SP)-excitation and single-beam-splitting double-pulse(SBSDP)-excitation over Zr-2.5% Nb alloy. The two most important plasma parameters influencing the emission line intensity, plasma temperature(T) and electron density(N) were studied and compared for both modes of laser excitation. Comparison of the results conclusively demonstrates that due to the splitting of the laser energy in the SBS-DP mode, the plasma shielding effect is significantly reduced. The reduced plasma shielding translates to an increased laser–sample coupling under SBS-DP mode. Temporal imaging of the total intensity of the laserinduced plasma in both excitation modes was also studied. The study shows how the plasma shielding effect can be reduced to improve the analytical quality of the LIBS methodology.