Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for elemental analysis in water

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy was applied to determine several eleme nts in water for a possible application to water quality assessment. A puls ed Nd:YAG laser was focused on a water stream flowing down from a slender n ozzle to generate a plasma. The emission from the plasma was collected and measured by using a gated photodiode-array detector. Calibration curves wer e prepared that spanned the ionic concentrations from 1 ppm, the low limit of detection, which is the common regulation level for the unhazardous spec ies in water. The effects of some experimental parameters were analyzed.