Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of water samples with millijoule pulse energies

Summary form only given, as follows. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a rapid technique for characterization of the elemental composition of samples, based on ionizing a small sample of material using a short laser pulse and observing the characteristic line emission of the material´s constituents. A study is being carried out of the application of LIBS to the measurement of contaminants in water using 10 nanosecond 355 nm pulses from a Nd:YAG laser. The experiments employ pulse energies from 1-50 mJ, lower than the pulse energies that have been traditionally used in LIBS studies of liquids. However, these energies can easily produce focal spot intensities on the order of 10/sup 10/ Wcm/sup -2/ as required to exceed the breakdown threshold of the surface of water. The extension of LIBS to lower energy regimes will improve the industrial applicability of the technique, as lower cost higher repetition rate laser systems can be employed in this case.