Radon decay monitoring in air using characteristic emission of species in metal-assisted LIBS

Copper assisted optical emission spectroscopy is studied in the synthetic air and (Rn + air) environment. The copper plate acts as the metal target in the Q-SW Nd:YAG laser induced plasma. Several characteristic emissions are taken from oxygen, nitrogen and the copper species in (Rn + air) plasma within the control chamber. The emission lines due to the metal species and air components exhibit noticeably to be enhanced respect to those of the synthetic air. The corresponding amplitudes lucidly decrease during a ten day follow-up. The instantaneous reductions of the copper characteristic lines are in agreement with the radon decay. The plasma temperature is estimated based on the Boltzmann plot whereas the corresponding electron density is determined using the Stark broadening. It is shown that those plasma parameters gradually increase with time to reach the values of pure air after several radon half-lives.