Nanoparticle enhanced laser ablation and consequent effects on laser induced plasma optical emission

In this paper the plasmon enhanced ablation for elemental analysis is investigated with several experiments in order to point out the crucial questions concerning the laser matter interaction under the effect of plasmonic coupling between the nanoparticle (NP) system and the laser ablation pulse. The correlation between the electromagnetic field enhancement and the signal enhancement during NP enhanced laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (NELIBS), as well as the laser matter interaction at the nanoscale, is discussed in the case of noble metal NPs deposited on metal samples. The results suggest that, while laser pulse energy is concentrated in the space between the NPs, the NP system is shielded by the field enhancement distribution after the laser pulse interacts with the plasmons of the NP system. Finally the comparison of the laser energy transfer to the sample between NELIBS and conventional LIBS is discussed.