Compositional Analysis of Aerosols Using Calibration-Free Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

We demonstrate that the elemental composition of aerosols can be measured using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) without any preliminary calibration with standard samples. Therefore, a nanosecond Nd:YAG laser beam was focused into a flux of helium charged with alumina aerosols of a few micrometers diameter. The emission spectrum of the laser-generated breakdown plasma was recorded with an echelle spectrometer coupled to a gated detector. The spectral features including emission from both the helium carrier gas and the Al2O3 aerosols were analyzed on the base of a partial local thermodynamic equilibrium. Thus, Boltzmann equilibrium distributions of population number densities were assumed for all plasma species except of helium atoms and ions. By analyzing spectra recorded for different delays between the laser pulse and the detector gate, it is shown that accurate composition measurements are only possible for delays ≤1 μs, when the electron density is large enough to ensure collisional equilibrium for the aerosol vapor species. The results are consistent with previous studies of calibration-free LIBS measurements of solid alumina and glass and promote compositional analysis of aerosols via laser-induced breakdown in helium.