Comparison Study of Two Commercial Spectrometers for Heavy Metal Analysis of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance of two spectrometers that are manufactured from the same company. In this work, heavy metals like lead Pb and copper Cu in the KBr matrix were analyzed using the laser induced breakdown spectroscopic technique. A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with 90 mJ per pulse operating at the fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm and pulse duration of 10 ns was used to generate plasma at the focal region. The important experimental parameters such as the laser energy, integration time, distance between the lens and sample, distance and angle of the optical fiber from the target were optimized. Two spectrometers manufactured by Ocean Optics namely as Maya2000Pro and USB 4000 were employed for anlyzing the spectral lines. The experimental setup and conditions were remained the same for both experiments. The production of spectral lines from each of the interested elements was analyzed and compared with the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) database. The sensitivity, repeatability and limit of detection for each of the systems are discussed in detail.