One-point calibration for calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy quantitative analysis

•A new method for improving the quantitative analysis by LIBS is presented.•Only one standard of known composition is needed for the analysis.•A set of copper-based samples of known composition is analyzed.•The concentrations calculated result remarkably close to the nominal concentrations.

We present a new method for improving the reliability of quantitative analysis by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The method can be considered as a variation of the calibration-free LIBS approach; although not completely standard-less, only one standard of known composition and similar matrix to the one to be analyzed is needed. On the other hand, the one-point calibration approach allows the empirical determination of essential experimental and spectroscopic parameters, whose knowledge is often imprecise or lacking; the result is a definite improvement of the trueness of LIBS analysis with respect to the traditional calibration-free approach.The characteristics and advantages of the proposed one-point calibration LIBS approach will be demonstrated on a set of copper-based samples of known composition.