Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technology uses short pulse or ultrashort pulse lasers which eject a tiny amount of the sample specimen from the material to be tested into a plasma for spectral analysis. This enables the real-time analysis of the material composition without the need to prepare samples. The LIBS method is suitable for alloy analysis, coating inspection and layer thickness measurement within the range of nanometers to 100 micrometers. It also enables depth-resolved measurement of element composition.
Advantages
- Contactless, purely optical
- Measurement time of milliseconds
- Inline
- No sample preparation
- High spatial resolution
- Independent of component geometry
Applications
- Imaging layer thickness measurement (galvanic, CVD, PVD)
- Material analysis in metal industry and mining (rock composition, metal alloys, recycling)
- Inline measurement in battery production