Detection of sulfur by optical emission spectroscopy generally presents some difficulties because the strongest lines are in the vacuum UV below 185 nm and therefore are readily absorbed by oxygen molecules in air. A novel concept for a low-cost and efficient system to detect sulfur using near-IR bands by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is here proposed. This concept is based on customized thick holographic gratings as spectral filtering elements. The signal integration and the temporal synchronization are performed using built-in custom electronics that amplify and integrate or trigger photodiode output signals. In this work, we use the near-IR lines at 921.287 nm and a background reference at 900 nm. Preliminary results show a limit of detection comparable to that of a conventional high-end system.
© 2012 Optical Society of America