Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy of Plant Materials*

Plant stress can be caused by many factors including drought, pollution, and microbial infestations; to name a few. Because many of these issues can affect agricultural crop yield, we use focused femtosecond laser pulses to perform laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) on plant materials in order to detect the effects of stress on plant life. LIBS has the advantage of being simple in its set-up making it an ideal candidate for performing plant stress detection in the field.