Laser stimulated plasma-induced luminescence for on-air material analysis

In this work, we present a method for performing analysis of the chemical composition and optical properties of materials using In-Air Plasma-Induced Luminescence. This is achieved by interaction of a focused high-energy laser with air, an interaction that produces a sub-millimetric plasma. The energetic electrons generated and accelerated in the plasma at energies higher than 5 keV reach the target surface of the sample to be analyzed, causing luminescence emission and plasmonic resonance. Each material is characterized by different chemical and optical properties that can be determined with the above-described technique. As such, our method allows obtaining an exact analysis of the sample, covering surfaces in the range of tens of mm2, in only a few minutes. We show that the acquired information with our method is identical to what obtained with more sophisticated methods, such as SEM-cathodoluminescence and photoluminescence.