5 STEPS TO BUILD A HIGH-PERFORMANCE SCIENTIFIC LIBS SETUP

Brief introduction to the world of LIBS systems

4. What about the safety?

Hitting the eye even by unfocused or scattered laser beam, or even indirect reflections of the laser beam on lenses, mirrors or other objects in the room can cause permanent sight damage. It is known that regular usage of specialized protection glasses in the lab requires certain level of discipline that may easily decrease with time. Retina damage is a matter of a few nanoseconds, in more equipped labs even a few femtoseconds. Therefore it is appropriate to surround the optical path or even the whole optical table, by for example sheets with matte and dark surface or special laser filters. The ablation itself can take place in a sealed chamber unless the sample dimensions prevent this option. See-through windows can be fitted with laser filters. The system can be equipped with safety switches that disable laser trigger, when the ablation chamber or some other part of the optical pathway is open. Laser safety glasses and laser filter (Thorlabs website, 2016) Always, however, the rule applies that it is necessary to wear special protection glasses for given laser wavelength with sufficient optical density (OD) during the measurements!