Plasma-grating-induced breakdown spectroscopy (GIBS) has proven itself superior to filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy (FIBS) in detection of trace elements in soil due to the higher intensity and electron density inside the...

Filament-and plasma-grating-induced breakdown spectroscopy (F-GIBS) was demonstrated as an efficient technique for sensitive detection of metals in water, where plasma gratings were established through synchronized nonlinear interaction of two noncollinear filaments and an additional filament was generated with another fs laser beam propagating along their bisector. A water jet was constructed vertically to the three coplanar filaments, overcoming side effects from violent plasma explosion and bubble generation. Three distinct regimes of different mechanisms were validated for nonlinear couplings of the third filament with plasma gratings. As the third filament was temporally overlapped with the two noncollinear filaments in the interaction zone, all the three filaments participated in synchronous nonlinear interaction and plasma grating structures were altered by the addition of the third filament. As the third filament was positively or negatively delayed, the as-formed plasma gratings were elongated by the delayed third filament, or plasma gratings were formed in the presence of plasma expansion of the ahead third filament, respectively. Using F-GIBS for trace metal detection in water, significant spectral line enhancements were observed.

Hydrogenated crystalized TiO2−x with oxygen vacant (OV) doping has attracted considerable attraction, owing to its impressive photoactivity. However, amorphous TiO2, as a common allotrope of titania, is ignored as a hydrogenated templet. In this work, hydrogenated amorphous TiO2−x (HAm-TiO2−x) with engineered surface OV and high surface area (176.7 cm2 g−1) was first prepared using a unique liquid plasma hydrogenation strategy. In HAm-TiO2−x, we found that OV was energetically retained in the subsurface region; in particular, the subsurface OV-induced energy level preferred to remain under the conduction band (0.5 eV) to form a conduction band tail and deep trap states, resulting in a narrow bandgap (2.36 eV). With the benefits of abundant light absorption and efficient photocarrier transportation, HAm-TiO2−x coated glass has demonstrated superior visible-light-driven self-cleaning performances. To investigate its formaldehyde photodegradation under harsh indoor conditions, HAm-TiO2−x was used to decompose low-concentration formaldehyde (~0.6 ppm) with weak-visible light (λ = 600 nm, power density = 0.136 mW/cm2). Thus, HAm-TiO2−x achieved high quantum efficiency of 3 × 10−6 molecules/photon and photoactivity of 92.6%. The adsorption capabilities of O2 (−1.42 eV) and HCHO (−1.58 eV) in HAm-TiO2−x are both largely promoted in the presence of subsurface OV. The surface reaction pathway and formaldehyde decomposition mechanism over HAm-TiO2−x were finally clarified. This work opened a promising way to fabricate hydrogenated amorphous photocatalysts, which could contribute to visible-light-driven photocatalytic environmental applications.

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