Simultaneous LIBS acoustic detection for mineral differentiation. Imaging and standoff studies under terrestrial and martian atmospheric conditions

Abstract

The combination of data simultaneously generated by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and laser-induced acoustics (LIAc) is a topic of many potential applications as both phenomena cover different sample traits. LIAc could add information concerning some physico-chemical parameters elusive to LIBS. Results indicated a strong dependence of the generated acoustic wave with physical properties such as the hardness of the material, and therefore the ablation rate, the density, and the thermal conductivity