The temporal evolution of electric breakdown in air at atmospheric pressure by Nd:yttrium–aluminum–garnet Q-switched nanosecond laser pulses was studied from the nanosecond to the millisecond time scale by shadowgraphy and interferometry techniques. The results were modeled with a gasdynamic code with good agreement. It was possible to simultaneously model the whole evolution of the plasma, the shock wave, and the hot core air. The shock wave velocity was determined to be $\text{⩾60\hspace{0.05em}}{\mathrm{km s}}^{\mathrm{-1}}$ at 20 ns. The plasma temperature was found to reach about ${\text{1.7×10}}^4 \mathrm{K}$ at 1 μs and the hot core air temperature was determined to be ${\text{<10}}^3 \mathrm{K}$ at 100 μs. This letter presents an experimental work that extends the study of laser induced plasmas to millisecond time scales.

This paper is part of a more general study aimed to the determination of the best experimental procedures for reliable quantitative measurements of Fe-Mn alloys by LIBS. In this work, attention is pointed on the self-absorption processes, whose effect deeply influences the LIBS measurements, reflecting in non-linear calibration curves. The effect of self-absorption on the line intensity can be quantified by defining a self-absorption coefficient, that measures the deviation of the line intensity from the linear extrapolation of the curve of growth in the optically thin regime. The authors demonstrated in a previous paper that self-absorption coefficients could be calculated once the electron density of the plasma is known and the Stark coefficients of the lines are available. However, when the Stark coefficients of the lines of interest are not known, a different approach is needed. In this work a new method for evaluation of self-absorption coefficients in LIBS measurements is presented, which does not require the knowledge of Stark coefficients. In order to understand the basic principles and setting out the theoretical tools that will be used for the analysis of the alloys, a preliminary study was done on pure M

In this work, the reflectance, optical absorption, and band gap have been determined for CdTe thin films grown on planar and microstructured substrates. The treated surface was prepared by laser ablation of a silicon wafer, forming holes in a periodic arrangement. Thin films were grown by pulsed laser ablation on silicon samples kept at 200 °C inside a vacuum chamber. The presence of CdTe was verified with X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy indicating a nanocrystalline zinc blended structure. The optical absorption of thin films was calculated by using the Fresnel laws and the experimental reflectance spectrum. Results show that reflectance of 245 nm films deposited on modified substrates is reduced by up to a factor of two than the obtained on unchanged silicon and the optical absorption is 16% higher at ~456 nm. Additionally, it was determined that the band gap energy for planar and microstructured films is about 1.44 eV for both cases.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is presented for trace element detection of liquid samples by analyzing a single droplet levitated by ultrasonic waves. A single liquid droplet is placed in the node of a standing acoustic wave produced by a uniaxial levitator for further chemical analysis. The acoustic levitator consists of a commercial Langevin-type transducer, attached to a concave mechanical amplifier, and a concave reflector. A micro-syringe was used to manually place individual liquid droplet samples in the acoustic levitation system. For chemical analysis, a laser-induced plasma is produced by focusing a single laser pulse on the levitated water droplet after it partially dries. The performance of the acoustic levitator on micron-sized droplets is discussed, and the detection of Ba, Cd, Hg, and Pb at parts per million (milligrams/liter) and sub-parts per million levels is reported. The process, starting from placing the sample in the acoustic levitator and ending on the chemical identification of the traces, takes a few minutes. The approach is particularly interesting in applications demanding limited volumes of liquid samples and relative simple and inexpensive techniques.