3. LIBS applications

3.1 Treatment considerations

The acquired signal is a set of digital values from the acquisition system. A LIBS system typically delivers 25,000 spectral points per shot, i.e. 10 to 20 times per second. With standard 16-bit encodings, it's easy to imagine the amount of data to be acquired and processed, perhaps even in real time depending on the application. There are techniques for reducing the amount of data, such as temporal, spatial or spectral averaging (in well-chosen bands). Unfortunately, these are not available for all applications.

In order to manage this particular problem, a systematic approach must be adopted to characterize signals and extract useful data:

• identification of the intrinsic origin of the...