Design of an athermal and vibration-isolated Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument

Industry-wide there is an interest in chemical composition sensing of materials, which requires no sample preparation and can be implemented in real-time. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, or LIBS, is a measurement tool able to achieve this by exciting material, creating an analytical plasma followed by observing its atomic emission of light. Wavelengths characteristic for the elements present in the material can be identified and used for quantitative measurements. This thesis focuses on how an instrument utilizing LIBS can be designed such that deformations of the instrument due to environmental loads do not influence the creation, and especially, the observation of the plasma. Experiments done showed the calibrated algorithm to misestimate the chemical composition if the plasma is partly observed. The proposed design of the instrument is realized and put to the test for thermal and mechanical loads individually, which verified its performance to stably create and observe the analytical plasma while enduring these.Mechanical Engineering | Optomechatronic