Influence of laser beam characteristics and focusing optics on optical laser-induced breakdown detection

authored by

Clemens Walther, W. Hauser

Abstract

Laser-induced breakdown detection (LIBD) is a well established technique for measuring size and concentration of inorganic colloids in liquids. However, most applications of LIBD are restricted to the measurement of mean sizes, which is problematic in cases of wide colloid size distributions (PSD) as typically is the case in natural systems. Evaluation of PSDs from LIBD is possible but requires detailed control of the power density within the laser focus. In the present work we describe the mathematical treatment how to calculate this power density from the beam characteristics of the light source and the optical properties of the focusing optics. The results are compared to measured spatial distributions of breakdown events of three LIBD setups.

External Organisation(s)

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Type

Article

Journal

Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics

Volume

97

Pages

877-886

No. of pages

10

ISSN

0946-2171

Publication date

01.12.2009

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous), Physics and Astronomy(all)

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-009-3660-3 (Access: Unknown)