Performance evaluation of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for quantitative analysis of rare earth elements in phosphate glasses

• Rare earth (Sm, Tm and Yb) doped phosphate glasses are quantitatively analyzed by LIBS for the first time.
• Regression coefficient (R2) of 0.99 is achieved for calibration curves.
• Excellent agreement achieved between predicted and LIBS determined concentration.
• Good number of emission lines for each rare earth element is recorded in a single spectrum.

In the current study, we have determined the elemental compositions of synthesized rare earth doped phosphate glasses using a laboratory Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) system. LIBS spectra of this rare earth (samarium (Sm), thulium (Tm) and ytterbium (Yb)) doped glass samples with known composition are recorded using a highly sensitive detector. Major atomic emission lines of Sm, Tm and Yb found in LIBS spectra are reported. By considering the atomic emission line of phosphorous as an internal standard, calibration curves were constructed for all the rare earth concentrations. Very good linear regression coefficient (R2) values were obtained using this technique. Analytical predictive skill of LIBS was studied further using leave-one-out method. Low values of the reported correlation uncertainty between measured LIBS concentration ratio and certified concentration ratio confirms that LIBS technique has great potential for quantitative analysis of rare earth elements in glass matrix.