Femtosecond laser induced breakdown spectroscopy of air–methane mixtures

Abstract Femtosecond laser pulses are used in order to induce dielectric breakdown in gaseous mixtures, namely in some reactive air–methane mixtures. The light emitted from the laser induced plasma was analyzed while the main emission features are identified and assigned. From the analysis of the emission spectra, a linear relationship was found to hold between the intensity of some spectral features and methane content. Finally, the use of femtosecond laser induced breakdown as a tool for the in situ determination of the composition of gaseous mixtures (e.g., equivalence ratio) is also discussed.