Design and construction of a low-cost 3D-printed portable LIBS system

Abstract

Abstract Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a widely used non-destructive analysis technique, which is however costly. In this paper we present the development of a low-cost 3D-printed portable LIBS system designed and built with a Technology Readiness Level 5 (TRL 5), i.e., technology validated in a relevant environment. The proposed LIBS system is compact and includes a passive Q-switch Nd 3+ :YAG pulsed laser, a handheld measuring device, a power supply, an optical spectrometer and a processing software. The electronic control system guarantees a stable laser triggering, thanks to the use of optical connections (optocouplers) avoiding wired electrical connections of the circuits. In addition, we found the correct energy characteristics of the passive Q-switch regime, to generate a single laser pulse, thus making the system operate more efficiently. Our low-cost 3D-printed portable LIBS system was validated with several tests with real samples of atomic elements (i.e., lithium, copper, silver, gold and lead).