Application of Laser-ablated Plasmas to Compositional Analysis of Steel in the Vacuum Ultraviolet

Time-integrated spatially-resolved emission spectroscopy, in the deep vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region, of laser-produced plasmas was employed for the quantitative determination of the carbon content in steel targets. Six prominent VUV carbon spectral lines, representing three different ionization stages, were selected and proved to be spectral interference free. Several experimental parameters and conditions, including the focusing lens type, the laser power density, the background atmosphere and the pressure, were optimized, leading to an optimum limit of detection for carbon of 1 ppm obtained with the 97.70-nm CIII spectral line. Thus article presents a summary of the overall results obtained from this study. KCI Citation Count: 10