Avoiding Misunderstanding Self-Absorption in Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) Analysis

First line: In a recent article published in this journal (1), I discussed seven common errors that may affect the results of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis. Among these errors, one of the recurring ones is related to misunderstanding the process of self-absorption in LIBS plasmas. Because many people working in LIBS still consider self-absorption as a problem yet to be solved, I am dedicating a full article to this topic. The physics and chemistry of the phenomenon have been well known for many years, and this knowledge can tell us how self-absorption can be not only "corrected," but also tuned to our advantage in analytical applications of LIBS.