Limits of Detection of Chemical Elements in an Aqueous Aerosol in Filament-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Abstract

The capabilities of filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy for the analysis of the elemental composition of aqueous aerosols were estimated. The diameter of aqueous aerosol droplets in the atmosphere was 0.8–2.0 μm. The emission lines of the chemical elements were excited by fi lamentation of femtosecond laser pulses (60 fs, 800 nm, 4.4 mJ) in weak focusing mode by a lens with a focal length of 500 mm. The obtained limits of detection for Al (396.15 nm), Ba (553.35 nm), Ca (422.67 nm), Mg (285.21 nm), Na (588.99 nm), and Mn (403.08 nm) in an aqueous aerosol were 12.1, 41.7, 10.0, 7.3, 0.7, and 32.3 mg/L, respectively.