Crater Formation and Damage Optimisation on Soda-Lime Glass for LIBS Analysis

This paper gives an insight to formation of ablation craters on float glass samples due to irradiation by high energetic nanosecond laser pulses and its optimisation for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis. Use of such lasers is less common for material processing, therefore ablation and eventual degradation of the samples has not been in the focus technical studies. Meanwhile high energy pulses can be optimal for certain applications, such as LIBS. Here the properties of ablation craters on common float glass samples after high energetic laser pulse irradiation were investigated. LIBS spectra were obtained and their quality was compared against the irradiation parameters such as wavelength and focusing conditions. It was found that these have a significant effect on crater formation, but parameters can be set to allow ablation without major degradation of the sample.