Qualitative Analysis and Plasma Characteristics of Soil from a Desert Area using LIBS Technique

Journal Article

Farooq, W Aslam . 2013

• نوع عمل المنشور: Deanship of Scientific Research KSU
• رابط المنشور على الويب: Qualitative Analysis and Plasma Characteristics of Soil from a Desert Area using LIBS Technique
• المجلة \ الصحيفة: Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
• رقم العدد: 6
• رقم الإصدار السنوي: Vol. 17
• الصفحات: pp. 548-558

مستخلص المنشور

In this work, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is used to investigate soil samples collected 
from different desert areas of Riyadh city in Saudi Arabia. Both qualitative analysis and plasma parameters 
are studied via the observed LIBS spectra. These experiments have been done using a Spectrolaser-7000 
system with 50 mJ fundamental wavelength of Nd:YAG laser and detection delay time of 1 microsecond. 
Many spectral lines are highly resolved for many elements like Al, Fe, Mg, Si, Mn, Na, Ca and K. The 
electron temperatures Te and electron densities Ne, for the constituent of generated LIBS plasma, are 
determined for all the collected samples. It is found that both Te and Ne vary from one desert area to 
other. This variation is due to the change of the elemental concentration in different desert areas that affects 
the sample’s matrices. Time dependent measurements have also been performed on the soil samples. While 
the signal-to-base ratio (SBR) reached its optimal value at 1 microsecond, the plasma parameters Ne and 
Te reach values of 4×1017cm-3
and 9235 K, respectively, at 2.5 microsecond. The later indicate that the 
plasma cooling processes are slow in comparison to the previously observed results for metallic samples. 
The observed results show also that in the future it is possible to enhance the exploitation of LIBS in 
the remote on-line environmental monitoring application, by following up only the values of Ne and Te 
for one element of the soil desert sample using an optical fiber probe