Spontaneous optical emission properties of laser-produced plasma during laser damage events at input and exit surfaces of fused silica were retrieved and compared. We show that plasma at the input surface is much larger in size and exhibits significantly higher electron number density and excitation temperature, even when smaller laser energy was used. This effect was attributed to the stronger laser–plasma coupling at the input surface. In addition, a strong continuum background containing three peaks at 1.3 eV, 1.9 eV, and 2.2 eV was observed at the exit surface, and possible origins for this effect are also discussed.

We demonstrate a simple technique to filter out the continuum background in filament-induced remote breakdown spectroscopy. By inserting a polarizer before the detector, the continuum background was reduced by more than 42% in filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy at a distance of 3.8 m, while the fluorescence intensity of aluminum atomic lines remains constant. Supercontinuum through self-phase modulation during filamentation mainly contributes to the continuum background. The polarization-gated technique provides a simple way to remove the continuum background in filament-induced remote breakdown spectroscopy.

We observe the third-harmonic generation and second-harmonic generation together with element fluorescence from the interaction of a femtosecond laser filament with a rough surface sample (sandy soil) in non-phase-matched directions. The harmonics prove to originate from the phase-matched surface harmonics and air filament, then scatter in non-phase-matched directions due to the rough surface. These harmonics occurr when the sample is in the region before and after the laser filament, where the laser intensity is not high enough to excite the element fluorescence. The observed harmonics are related to the element spectroscopy, which will benefit the understanding of the interaction of the laser filament with a solid and be helpful for the application on filament induced breakdown spectroscopy.

We investigate the temperature dependence of the emission spectrum of a laser-induced semiconductor (Ge and Si) plasma. The change in spectral intensity with the sample temperature indicates the change of the laser ablation mass. The reflectivity of the target surface is reduced as the sample is heated, which leads to an increase in the laser energy coupled to the surface of the sample and eventually produces a higher spectral intensity. The spectral intensities are enhanced by a few times at high temperatures compared with the cases at low temperatures. The spectral intensity of Ge is enhanced by 1.5 times at 422.66 nm, and 3 times at 589.33 nm when the sample temperature increases from 50°C to 300°C. We can obtain the same emission intensity by a more powerful laser or by less pulse energy with a higher sample temperature. Based on experimental observations we conclude that the preheated sample can improve the emission intensity of laser-induced semiconductor plasma spectroscopy.

From a classical dynamic simulation, we find the kinetic energy of the electrons generated during laser plasma generation depends on the laser polarization and intensity. The electron kinetic energy reaches its maximum with a fixed laser intensity for circularly polarized laser pulse. The fluorescence spectra at 380.4 nm from N2 and 391.3 nm from N2+ are measured; these are generated by both the direct excitation and electron collision excitation. The electron collision excitation is determined by the electron energy and reaches the maximal with a circularly polarized pulse.