Experimental investigation of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy assisted with laser-induced fluorescence for trace aluminum detection in steatite ceramics

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) assisted with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) was introduced to detect trace aluminum in steatite ceramics in this work. The mechanism and transition process of laser-induced aluminum atomic fluorescence in laser-induced plasma was described and discussed. Selective enhancement of LIF and temporal synchronicity between radiation laser and fluorescence were studied. The influences of ablation laser energy, power density of the radiation laser, and interpulse delay were experimentally investigated. The results showed that 60 mJ in ablation laser energy and 4 μs in interpulse delay were the optimal choice for fluorescent intensity. The fluorescence was increased to the saturation level over 4 MW∕cm ² . Spectral stability improvement of LIBS-LIF was also discovered in this work. The results proved that LIBS-LIF is a feasible and effective modification of LIBS for ceramics analysis.