Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of carbon in helium and nitrogen at high pressure

Abstract This work is devoted to the study of the gas pressure effect on the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy signal intensity of carbon. Experiments are performed, using a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser, with carbon solid samples placed inside a high pressure chamber filled with helium or nitrogen, the gas pressure varying from 1 to 80 atm. The signal intensity of the carbon line (247.86 nm) decreases with increasing pressure. As the plasma size strongly decreases with pressure, two collection optical setups are used, showing different raw results. To take into account the plasma size evolution with pressure, calculated corrections are applied to the collected light intensity. Carbon line emission is measured and corrected as a function of pressure in both gases. At 1 atm, the emission line is found to be greater in helium than in nitrogen by a factor of approximately 3, whereas the intensities in the two gases become close to each other at 80 atm.