Non-destructive chemical analysis of ceramic and glass

摘要

The process for non-destructive chemical analysis of ceramic materials and glasses comprises: (a) focussing high intensity pulsed light (pref. a pulsed laser beam of pulse width 8-32 nanosecs. and intensity 1 x 10<8>-5 x 10<9> W/cm<2>) onto the material surface to generate a plasma of ions, atoms and electrons, resulting in emission of a recombination radiation specific to the elements in the plasma; and (b) supplying the radiation to a spectrograph for splitting according to wavelength, wavelength-dispersive detection by an analyser and association with elements, the intensity relationship of the characteristic radiations associated with the different elements being used to determine the quantity of the elements in the material.