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LASER PRINCIPLES AND PRINCIPLES OF LASER INDUCED BREAKDAWEN

SPCTROSCOPY (LIBS)

Presentation · April 2016

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LASER PRINCIPLES AND PRINCIPLES OF
LASER INDUCED BREAKDOWEN
SPCTROSCOPY (LIBS)

BY
Dr. Tarek Atwee

QUESTIONS
1. what is laser?
2. What is laser wavelength?
3. What is a laser diod?
4. What is a gas laser?

INTRODUCTION
LASER is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated
Emission of Radiation which describes the theory of laser
operation. Albert Einstein published the theoretical basis for the
laser in 1917, but it was only in 1960 that the first functioning
laser was constructed by Theodore Maiman in California, using a
ruby crystal to produce laser light. An extract from the newspaper
article following a public demonstration of the laser, read:
“Suddenly a light from hell appeared in the middle of the
ruby. Then, from the end of a cylinder, a hundred thousand
times brighter than the sun, burst forth a thin red light, a
perfectly parallel monochromatic beam.
Maiman and his assistants were silent for some time,
enthralled by the beauty of this spectacle… ‘Einstein was
right’ he murmured, ‘light can be concentrated and
coherent.”
The device produces a beam of coherent light with a specific
wavelength in the infrared, visible or ultraviolet regions of the
electromagnetic spectrum. Further development of this technology
led to lasers becoming widely used in medical practice.

LASER PHYSICS
Properties of laser light

Unlike other forms of light, laser light has special properties

which make it significantly more effective and dangerous than
conventional light of the same power. The laser light particles
(photons) are usually:

Monochromatic: consisting of a single wavelength or

colour

Coherent: photons are in phase (like marching soldiers)

Collimated: photons are almost in parallel (aligned), with

little divergence from the point of origin
Components of a laser
A laser consists of 3 basic components:

1. A lasing medium or “gain medium”:

May be a solid (crystals, glasses), liquid (dyes or organic
solvents), gas (helium, CO2 ) or semiconductors

2. An energy source or “pump”:

May be a high voltage discharge, a chemical reaction, diode, flash
lamp or another laser

3. An optical resonator or “optical cavity”:

Consists of a cavity containing the lasing medium, with 2 parallel
mirrors on either side. One mirror is highly reflective and the other
mirror is partially reflective, allowing some of the light to leave
the cavity to produce the laser’s output beam – this is called the
output coupler.
The laser is usually named according to the type of lasing
medium. This also determines the type of pump required and the
wavelength of the laser light which is produced.

Principle of operation at atomic level (Figures 2 and 3)

One model in atomic physics describes an atom as a central
nucleus of protons and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of
electrons which encircle the nucleus in different orbitals. When
appropriate energy is supplied to the atom, electrons can jump
from low-energy orbitals (ground state) near the nucleus to high-
energy orbitals further away, leading to atomic excitation by the
process of energy absorption.

Some of the electrons in the high-energy orbit spontaneously

return to the ground state, releasing the difference in energy in the
form of a photon, with a wavelength which depends exactly upon
the difference in energy of the 2 states and has a random phase and
direction. This process is called spontaneous emission
and forms the basis of light emitted by a neon sign, fluorescent
light bulb and television tube. This emitted photon can collide
with one of the mirrors in the resonating cavity and reflect back
into the lasing medium causing further collision with some of the
already excited atoms. If an excited atom is struck, it can be
stimulated to decay back to the ground state, releasing 2 photons
identical in direction, phase, polarization and energy (wavelength).
This process is termed stimulated emission.

A cascade effect of stimulated emission of photons occurs,

resulting in further amplification (optical gain) and soon many of
the atoms emit light along the same axis. For a laser to sustain
function, the majority of the atoms must be maintained in the
excited state, hence called “population inversion”. This is
achieved by the continuous input from the energy pump
(continuous wave laser) or by intermittent pumping resulting in a
pulsed wave laser.
A small number of photons are allowed to escape from the lasing
medium though the partially reflective mirror of the output
coupler. This is the usable laser light and may be in the visible
spectrum or beyond (infrared or ultraviolet). It is directed to the
target via a delivery system which consists of fibre-optic
light guides for visible light or a series of mirrors for infrared.
PRINCIPLES OF LASER ACTION
(A) Ruby Laser System
(B) Nd: YAG laser System

Nd: YAG Laser System

Energy levels of Nd: YAG Laser System
The Laser Cavity of Nd:YAG Laser System
Principles of Laser Induced Breakdown
Spectroscopy (LIBS)
What is LIBS?
Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a rapid chemical

analysis technology that uses a short laser pulse to create a micro-plasma on

the sample surface. This analytical technique offers many compelling

advantages compared to other elemental analysis techniques. These include:

A sample preparation-free measurement experience

Extremely fast measurement time, usually a few seconds, for a

single spot analysis

Broad elemental coverage, including lighter elements, such as H,

Be, Li, C, N, O, Na, and Mg

Versatile sampling protocols that include fast raster of the sample

surface and depth profiling

Thin-sample analysis without the worry of the substrate interference

So how does LIBS work?

The main physical process that forms the essence of LIBS technology is the

formation of high-temperature plasma, induced by a short laser pulse. When

the short-pulse laser beam is focused onto the sample surface, a small

volume of the sample mass is ablated (i.e. removed via both thermal and

non-thermal mechanisms) — in a process known a Laser Ablation. This

ablated mass further interacts with a trailing portion of the laser pulse to form

a highly energetic plasma that contains free electronics, excited atoms and

Laser Ablation: The removal of a small quantity of mass from a sample's

surface using a focused, pulsed laser beam.

ions. Many fundamental research projects have shown that the plasma
temperature can exceed 30,000K in its early life time phase.

When the laser pulse terminates, the plasma starts to cool. During the plasma
cooling process, the electrons of the atoms and ions at the excited electronic
states fall down into natural ground states, causing the plasma to emit light
with discrete spectral peaks. The emitted light from the plasma is collected
and coupled with an ICCD/spectrograph detector module for LIBS spectral
analysis. Each element in the periodic table is associated with unique LIBS
spectral peaks. By identifying different peaks for the analyzed samples, its
chemical composition can be rapidly determined. Often, information on LIBS
peak intensities can be used to quantify the concentration of trace and major
elements in the sample.
With the advancement of powerful chemometric software for LIBS data
analysis, and with steady progress in understanding laser ablation
fundamentals, today’s analytical researchers are applying LIBS effectively for
both quantitative and material discriminatory analysis for a wide range of
sample matrices.

The Basics of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

 (a)

Block Diagram for a typical LIBS System for a local chemical

Analysis or for laser cleanning.

(b)
Initiation of a high-temperature (>15,000K) plasma above the
sample surface and a rapid expansion of the plasma into the
ambient medium.

Emission of continuum light during early stage (< 200 ~ 300 nsec)
of plasma cooling process.
Emission of discrete atomic lines at later times (> 1 µsec)

Display of LIBS spectra and their subsequent analysis by the

system software for both qualitative and quantitative elemental
analysis
Summary for all laser systems

Laser Terminology
*Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) is the level of laser radiation
to which a person may be exposed without hazardous effect or
adverse biological changes in the eye or skin.

*Nominal Hazard Zone (NHZ) The space within which the irradiance
or radiant exposure exceeds the appropriate MPE.

*Optical Density (OD) is the approximate order of magnitude of

transmittance (T) at a given wavelength. OD is determined by log10
(1/T). For example an OD of 1 reduces transmission by 10 and an
OD of 3 reduces the transmission by 1000.

*Accessible Emission Limit (AEL) is the allowed emission within a

certain laser hazard class.

*Laser Output is the maximum energy associated with the laser

usually measured in Watts (W) or milliwatts (mW).
 *Pulse energy is the amount of laser energy per pulse usually
measured in Joule/pulse.

*Irradiance is the amount of continuous laser light energy per unit

area usually measured in Watt/cm2.

*Radiant exposure is the amount of laser light per pulse per unit
area usually measured in Joule/cm2.

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