Sample temperature effect on steel measurement using SP-LIBS and collinear long-short DP-LIBS

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been investigated as a potential multi-element quantitative analysis tool for the quality control of on-line steel production. This research investigated influence of sample temperature on steel sample measurement using collinear long-short dual-pulse LIBS (long-short DP-LIBS) and single-pulse LIBS (SP-LIBS). The standard steel sample has been uniformly heated in a muffle furnace from 20°C to 700°C. The experimental results show that sample temperature has significantly effect on measurement result using SP-LIBS. However, long-short DP-LIBS can effectively reduce the sample temperature effect on measurement result. The detection characteristics of long-short DP-LIBS and SP-LIBS were compared using the intensity ratio of I _Mn 404.136 _nm/I _Fe 400.524 _nm and I _Fe 402.187 _nm/I _Fe 400.524 _nm under different delay time and different sample temperature conditions. The signal intensity and plasma temperature can be maintained higher and more stable for a period of time and at different sample temperature by long-short DP-LIBS with smaller error bar compared with that of SP-LIBS, which indicated long-short DP-LIBS has better measurement repeatability than SP-LIBS. The plasma temperature correction method was applied to compare the detection features of long-short DP-LIBS and SP-LIBS. The signal stability of long-short DP-LIBS measurement was improved significantly at different sample temperature with plasma temperature correction. These results demonstrated that the effect of sample temperature can be reduced using long-short DP-LIBS method to improve the on-line detection capability for steel measurement in complex environment.