Remote analysis by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

                                         Gabriela Vítková

                                                                               Analytical Chemistry

                                                                                 Faculty of Science

                                                                                 Masaryk University


The dissertation to be presented focuses mainly on development of methods for stand-off LIBS in
field of archaeology and cultural heritage protection. The work has been done in cooperation with
Institute of Physical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of
Technology, where stand-off LIBS device is being developed.

The research was focused on building materials since field-deployable LIBS setup represents a great
advantage in this area. LIBS spectra were treated using advanced chemometrics with the aim of
finding the best method for classification of materials or different types of the same material.
Multivariate methods for dimension reduction like PCA and Sammon mapping were tested first. Then
various supervised and unsupervised methods of pattern recognition for classification were used.
The spectra were also investigated in relation with differences in plasma conditions or measuring
parameters while measuring various types of materials.