Movable fiber probe for gas-phase laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

A movable probe that fiber couples both the beam delivery and the signal collection functions of gas-phase laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements was evaluated. The adjustable probe was used to investigate the effect of delivery fiber curvature on plasma characteristics and the associated effect on LIBS spectra and to further identify issues remaining to facilitate fully fiber-coupled gas-phase LIBS measurements. LIBS data were collected from lean methane-air mixtures of various equivalence ratios and spectroscopically analyzed to establish the ability to determine relative fuel-air ratio.