Observation of Atomic Emission Enhancement by fs-ns Dual-Pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

An experiment of a 500-fs KrF laser pulse incident upon a high density supersonic O₂ gas jet synchronously with an ns frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser pulse is performed in orthogonal configuration. Significant atomic emission enhancement of over forty-fold is observed with an optical multi-channel analyser. The enhancement effect is probably attributed to the different ionization mechanisms between fs and ns laser pulses.