Basic investigations of nanosecond laser-induced plasma emission kinetics for quantitative elemental microanalysis of high alloys

Abstract

The new application of time-resolved laser-induced breakdown spectrometry (TRELIBS) to the direct undamaged qualitative and quantitative analysis of tertiary high-alloys (gold jewels) has been studied. A plasma was formed by using a low energy (10 mJ, 10 ns) Q-switched Nd: YAG laser in atmospheric air. The plasma emission was measured by a 0.6 m polychromator and a computer controlled gated optical multichannel detector system. The TRELIBS system greatly improved the line-to-background ratios. This investigation was carried out over a wide spectral range in the ultraviolet and visible region for the analytical line pairs of copper–gold, silver–gold and copper–silver.