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. The formation of the plasma only begins when the focused laser achieves a certain threshold for optical breakdown, which generally depends on the environment and the target material. In principle, LIBS makes use of optical emission spectrometry and is to this extent very similar to arc/spark emission spectroscopy.
Fields of application
-
Cultural heritage
archaeological object and site, architecture, art, decorative arts, film, mosaics, painting, sculpture, textile
-
Natural heritage
fossil, mineral, shell, skeleton
Materials
-
inorganic
ceramic (clay/mud brick/terracotta/earthenware/stoneware/porcelain), glass, stone, metal and metallurgical By-Products, pigment
-
organic
binding media, glues, wood, paper, textiles, varnishes
TOOLS
The instrument is a laboratory compact hybrid Raman-LIF-LIBS system based on the excitation of the three types of spectroscopic signals with a Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser (LS-2147, Lotis II) operating at 532, 355 or 266 nm, at a repetition rate of 10 Hz and delivering pulses of 17 ns with Gaussian-like spatial profile. The linearly polarized...
Contact person
Marta Castillejo
The LIBS microscope has the capacity to provide fast elemental mapping of flat surfaces, typically cross sections of geological samples, marine shells, bones, teeth etc. The 2D-elemental profile of the mapped surface can be used to identify the distribution of mineral phases in rocks, to measure the variability of elemental proxies related to paleoenvironment in...