Abstract: Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an atomic emission spectroscopy technique based on transient plasma, and imaging observation is crucial for LIBS research. An economically viable industrial color camera is employed to facilitate LIBS plasma imaging, utilizing RGB channels of the camera to segregate plasma imaging outcomes across distinct bands, and consequently achieving the dynamic observation of elemental evolution within corresponding bands. The efficacy of this approach was verified through experiment with copper-zinc alloy targets, and the results showed that the proposed method can effectively characterize the expansion of various elements (Zn, Cu, O). Furthermore, combined with bandpass filters, the method can achieve plasma imaging within narrower spectral bands. This validation underscores the feasibility of leveraging the RGB channel of color cameras for plasma imaging analysis, and the proposed method can provide a pragmatic technical avenue for fundamental LIBS research.

Key words: spectroscopy, plasma imaging, RGB channel, time resolution, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy