5 STEPS TO BUILD A HIGH-PERFORMANCE SCIENTIFIC LIBS SETUP

Brief introduction to the world of LIBS systems

3. How to control them?

Software equipment should interconnect, synchronize and control all the LIBS setup elements, i.e. laser(s), spectrometer(s), detectors, cameras, manipulator, laser energy meter, illumination and other equipment. In extreme cases it is possible to get by with basic software supplied by respective producers of equipment. This solution has its limits, though. The LIBS measurement is accompanied with plenty of ongoing programs with different interfaces and means of control. Programs do not mutually communicate and sometimes even disturb each other. Such work is demotivating, time-consuming and often even prevents full exploitation of great potential of costly equipment. Often, the whole problem ends up in hands of more or less experienced hobby IT experimenter, or, in better cases, in the hands of an external IT specialist, who creates some of the parts of the control interface. Software created in a professional way with united and intuitive GUI, ideally extendable for new modules in the future, offering spectra analysis in addition to system control, is priceless. LIBS experimenters can then develop LIBS method and do not have to waste time with the experimental control. AtomChamber software by Atomtrace With suitable hardware it is possible to have in one software:

• manipulator control
• sample view, illumination
• lasers and detectors control
• inner pressure control (in case of a sealed LIBS chamber)
• defining the area of analysis and creation of real-time chemical maps
• depth profiling with auto re-focusing of the ablation laser beam
• automatic elemental recognition in the spectrum
• spectra manipulation
• approximation of atomic lines, e.g. using Voight profile, measurement of line parameters
• calculation of plasma parameters
• creation of calibration curves
• etc.