Applied Optics
Published by The Optical Society of America

Applied Optics Feature Announcement

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Submission Deadline: 1 April 2008

The first North American Symposium on Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (NASLIBS) was held 8–10 October 2007 in New Orleans, LA. NASLIBS 2007 was dedicated to the capture of rapid developments in the fundamental science and in the applications of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). A unique feature of this technique is its potential to make remote, real-time determination of the chemical composition of any sample matrix, specifically in the case of nuclear, chemical, and biological threats for homeland security applications and others, both at close-contact as well as at standoff ranges in excess of 100 m.

The NASLIBS was organized to bring together experts and young researchers in academia, specialists from analytical laboratories, and engineers from industry. The NASLIBS was launched to showcase recent progress made in the areas of LIBS applications and instrumentation and to define the needs for future development of LIBS technology and its applications as a whole. The central theme of NASLIBS 2007 is "LIBS from the laboratory to dual-use applications," aimed at emphasizing the contribution of fundamental knowledge to analytical and instrumental technology, as well as to highlight the growth in the usefulness of LIBS for a variety of societal applications. We encourage the submission of manuscripts to this feature issue of the Lasers, Photonics, and Environmental Optics division of Applied Optics from both invited and contributed papers presented at NASLIBS 2007. In addition, we also invite original manuscripts from nonattendees that are aligned with the central theme of the conference.

This feature issue highlights the topics of the 2007 North American Symposium on Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy but are not limited to the following:

  • Security and forensic
  • Fundamentals
  • Instrumentation/commercialization
  • Biomedical and environmental
  • Fusion with LIBS
  • New frontiers
  • Industrial
  • Liquid analysis

Manuscripts must be prepared in standard Applied Optics format; see Information for Contributors instructions online (http://ao.osa.org/submit/style/default.cfm) or in any recent issue of Applied Optics. Please submit your manuscript electronically to the Lasers, Photonics, and Environmental Optics division of Applied Optics, and specify that the manuscript is for the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy feature (choose from the feature issue drop-down menu). Information on electronic manuscript submission can be found at http://ao.osa.org/journal/ao/author.cfm

Feature Editors

Jagdish P. Singh
Mississippi State University
Starkville, Mississippi
USA
singh@icet.msstate.edu

Madhavi Z. Martin
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
USA
martinm1@ornl.gov

Andrzej W. Miziolek
US Army
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
USA
miziolek@arl.army.mil