TY - JOUR A1 - Völker, Tobias A1 - Gornushkin, Igor B. T1 - Importance of physical units in the Boltzmann plot method JF - Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry N2 - The Boltzmann plot is one of the most widely used methods for determining the temperature in different types of laboratory plasmas. It operates on the logarithm as a function of the dimensional argument, which assumes that the correct physical units are used. In many works using the Boltzmann method, there is no analysis of the dimension of this argument, which may be the cause of a potential error. This technical note offers a brief description of the method and shows how to correctly use physical units when using transcendental functions like the logarithm. KW - Boltzmann plot KW - Laser induced plasma PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-558039 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d2ja00241h SP - 1 EP - 3 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-55803 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Völker, Tobias A1 - Gornushkin, Igor B. T1 - Extension of the Boltzmann plot method for multiplet emission lines JF - Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer N2 - The Boltzmann plot method is widely used to determine the temperature of laser induced plasma. It involves the use of individual lines that are not easy to find in complex spectra and/or in the spectral range available. If the number of such lines is not enough to build a reliable Boltzmann plot, overlapping lines are often used, which are separated by software. However, line separation is a rather imprecise procedure, which, in addition, requires significant computational costs. This study proposes an extension of the Boltzmann plot method that allows a specific group of unresolved lines to be included in a Boltzmann plot without the need to separate them. This group of lines are multiplets, lines of the same element with similar upper and lower transition states. The multiplet lines along with the individual lines are included in the algorithm, which also includes a correction for self-absorption and is used to determine the plasma temperature. The algorithm is tested on synthetic spectra which are consistent with the model of a homogeneous isothermal plasma in local thermodynamic equilibrium and is shown to be superior to the standard Boltzmann plot method both in more accurate determination of the plasma temperature and in a significant reduction in the computational time. The advantages and disadvantages of the method are discussed in the context of its applications in laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. KW - LIBS KW - Spectroscopy KW - Boltzmann plot KW - Multiplet KW - Spectral overlap PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2023.108741 SN - 1879-1352 VL - 310 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - Elsevier AN - OPUS4-58058 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -