Polarization and fluence dependence of the polarized emission in nanosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Several studies have appeared in the past two years reporting that the continuum emission produced by the laser ablation of solid materials is strongly polarized. In a paper that appears to conflict with these findings, Asgill et al. report that they did not observe a significant amount of polarization produced by nanosecond laser excitation of nitrogen gas and laser ablation of copper and steel ( M.E. Asgill, H.Y. Moon, N. Omenetto, D.W. Hahn, Investigation of polarization effects for nanosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, Spectrochim. Acta Part B (2010) xxx–xxx [7]). Here we show that the apparent discrepancy is resolved when laser fluence and polarization are taken into account. Using a 532 nm Nd:YAG laser to ablate Al samples in air, we find that the degree of polarization, P, of the continuum is greater for s- vs. p-polarized excitation and that P decreases with increasing fluence. We show that P would be < 10% under the conditions of Asgill et al., whereas P > 60% is obtained at low fluences with s-polarized excitation. We also confirm that at high fluence the polarization of the discrete emission is much smaller than that of the continuum.