Polarization characteristics of single shot nanosecond laser induced breakdown spectroscopy of Al

Polarization-resolved laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (PRLIBS) technique which can significantly reduce the polarized emission from laser plasma by placing a polarizer in front of the detector, is a powerful tool to improve line-to-continuum ratio in LIBS application. It is shown that the continuum emission from the plasma produced through ablating an Al sample by nanosecond laser pulses is much more polarized than the discrete line emission with single-pulse PRLIBS technique. The effects of laser fluence, and detection angle on the Al polarization spectrum are systematically explored experimentally. The calculated result of polarization spectrum as a function of laser fluence shows that it is in agreement with the experimental observations.