2. Principle

The general principle of the LIBS method is to focus a laser beam of known duration, wavelength and energy onto (or into) the target to be analyzed, under ambient conditions of temperature and pressure . Under these intense irradiation conditions, the fluences (power per unit area) induced are of the order of several tens of MW/cm ² . This results in the immediate vaporization of a few micrograms of material at the focal point, and the fragmentation of molecules with the formation of an atom-ion-electron system, i.e. the formation of a dense plasma with a composition representative of the target under study (gas,...