Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been regarded as a future superstar for chemical analysis for years due to its unique features such as little or no sample preparation, remote sensing, and fast and multi-element analysis. Chinese LIBS community is one of the most dynamically developing communities in the World. The aim of the work is to inspect what have been done in China for LIBS development and, based on the understanding of the overall status, to identify the challenges and opportunities for the future development. In this paper, the scientific contributions from Chinese LIBS community are reviewed for the following four aspects: fundamentals, instrumentation, data processing and modeling, and applications; and the driving force of LIBS development in China is analyzed, the critical issues for successful LIBS application are discussed, and in our opinion, the potential direction to improve the technology and to realize large scale commercialization in China is proposed.

Laser ablation-spark induced breakdown spectroscopy (LA-SIBS), characterized by a developed high voltage fast pulse discharge spark, allows direct in-site analysis of non-conductive material without prior sample preparation. Currently laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) permits qualitative analysis of a solid or liquid sample by ablating a tiny portion of it, then analyzing the resulting plasma. The LA-SIBS takes this a step further by employing a specifically designed high voltage and fast pulse discharge circuit to enhance plasma emission produced by laser ablation. In this article, LA-SIBS was used for optical emission spectroscopy of soil and compared with a single pulse (SP) LIBS technique. Except for great signal enhancement of plasma emission, the precision in terms of relative standard deviation (RSD) was generally improved by about 2 to 3 times. In addition, the signal to noise (S/N) ratio was improved by about 2 to 3 times as well. These characteristics will thereby probably benefit sensitivity for minor element analysis in most potential analytes. The signal enhancement with improved precision and S/N ratio on soil samples by LA-SIBS was demonstrated.

Nanosecond discharge enhanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of silicon was investigated. An intense discharge spark was observed with a peak discharge current of 1.63 kA and a peak power of 8.1 MW, and only lasted for ∼51 ns. The discharge stability and the effect of the capacitances on the discharge and optical emission were investigated. A stable discharge process and optical emission were observed. The precision in terms of the relative standard deviation (RSD) of time delay between the laser firing and discharge was 1.7% with a discharge voltage of 9 kV, while the RSD of line intensities from repeatable measurements was typically about 2–3%. The measured line intensities of atomic and ionic states of silicon were used for electron temperature calculation by employing Saha–Boltzmann plots. Electron number density was determined by using the Stark broadening of two silicon atomic lines. Compared to the laser induced plasma, the temperature of the discharge enhanced plasma was increased, while the electron number density in the discharge plasma was roughly the same in the laser ablation nanosecond discharge enhanced Si plasma.

In this paper, a high voltage and fast pulse discharge circuit is developed and combined with laser ablation to enhance optical emission from Si crystal. The new characters of the discharge circuit and its effect on the plasma emission are presented. Characterizing by a damping and periodical oscillating discharge voltage and current with a short period of ~0.5μs, the discharge automatically occurs ~1μs after laser ablation. Significant optical emission enhancement, up to 52 times improved signal intensity relative to the signal in the absence of the discharge spark, is observed. Better line stability in terms of relative standard deviation and improved signal to noise (S/N) ratio are also achieved. The enhanced line intensity with better stability and S/N ratio, similar with the observation when using double-pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (DP-LIBS), probably will benefit element analysis in the future.