Detection of Cu in solution with double pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

In this paper, double pulse (DP) Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) has been used for the detection of Cu in solution. Two nanosecond scale Nd:YAG lasers at 1064 nm are combined in collinear beam geometry to carry out the DP-LIBS experiment. Based on the spectral line intensity and signal to noise ratio, the experimental parameters were carefully optimized. With the intensities of atomic lines Cu I 324.7 nm and Cu I 327.4 nm, calibration curves were derived. The limit of detection (LOD) of Cu in solution was found to be 2.0 mg/L, which is better than that obtained under single pulse LIBS analysis.