A procedure for correcting self-absorption in calibration free-laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

A model of the self-absorption effect in laser-induced plasma has been developed, with the aim of providing a tool for its automatic correction in the Calibration-Free algorithm recently developed for standardless analysis of materials by LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy). As a test of the model, the algorithm for self-absorption correction is applied to three different certified steel NIST samples and to three ternary alloys (Au, Ag, Cu) of known composition. The experimental results show that the self-absorption corrected Calibration-Free method gives reliable results, improving the precision and the accuracy of the CF-LIBS procedure by approximately one order of magnitude.