At the laboratory for Optical Diagnostics and Renewable Energies (ODEE), led by Professor Dirk Geyer at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (h_da), experiments on Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) were carried out with significant contributions from Maximilian Dorscht. The study focused on determining the oxygen-to-iron ratio (oxidation state) of iron microparticles.
Initial measurements using nanosecond pulses showed a significantly elevated oxygen content, suggesting a distorting influence from the surrounding gas phase. A comparison with picosecond pulses confirmed that this effect can be substantially reduced due to the significantly shorter plasma lifetime, resulting in more reliable measurement results.
A picosecond laser (PL2251C | Ekspla) was used for the experiments.
Further details are presented in the joint article “Gas Phase Plasma Transfer in Analysis of Metal Microparticles” by Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Ekspla, and TOPAG, published in PhotonicsViews 01/26, pp. 11–14.
