Roughness effects on the hydrogen signal in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

TY - JOUR

T1 - Roughness effects on the hydrogen signal in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

AU - Rapin, W.

AU - Bousquet, B.

AU - Lasue, J.

AU - Meslin, P. Y.

AU - Lacour, J. L.

AU - Fabre, C.

AU - Wiens, R. C.

AU - Frydenvang, Jens

AU - Dehouck, E.

AU - Maurice, S.

AU - Gasnault, O.

AU - Forni, O.

AU - Cousin, A.

PY - 2017/11/1

Y1 - 2017/11/1

N2 - On Mars, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) as performed by the ChemCam instrument can be used to measure the hydrogen content of targets in situ, under a low pressure CO2 atmosphere. However, unexpected variations observed in the Martian dataset suggest an effect related to target roughness. Here, we present a series of laboratory experiments that reproduce the effect observed on Mars and explore possible causes. We show that the hydrogen peak intensity increases significantly with increasing exposure of the target surface to the LIBS plasma, and that these variations are specific to hydrogen, as other emission lines in the spectra are not affected. The increase of the signal could be related to an addition of hydrogen to the plasma due to interaction with the surrounding target surface, yet the exact physical process to explain such effect remains to be identified. More generally, this effect should be taken into account for the quantification of hydrogen in any LIBS applications where the roughness of the target is significant.

AB - On Mars, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) as performed by the ChemCam instrument can be used to measure the hydrogen content of targets in situ, under a low pressure CO2 atmosphere. However, unexpected variations observed in the Martian dataset suggest an effect related to target roughness. Here, we present a series of laboratory experiments that reproduce the effect observed on Mars and explore possible causes. We show that the hydrogen peak intensity increases significantly with increasing exposure of the target surface to the LIBS plasma, and that these variations are specific to hydrogen, as other emission lines in the spectra are not affected. The increase of the signal could be related to an addition of hydrogen to the plasma due to interaction with the surrounding target surface, yet the exact physical process to explain such effect remains to be identified. More generally, this effect should be taken into account for the quantification of hydrogen in any LIBS applications where the roughness of the target is significant.

KW - ChemCam

KW - Hydrogen

KW - LIBS

KW - Low pressure

KW - Mars

KW - Roughness

KW - Water

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85029461354&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.sab.2017.09.003

DO - 10.1016/j.sab.2017.09.003

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85029461354

SN - 0584-8547

VL - 137

SP - 13

EP - 22

JO - Spectrochimica Acta - Part B Atomic Spectroscopy

JF - Spectrochimica Acta - Part B Atomic Spectroscopy

ER -