Recent technological progress in Asia from the first Asian Symposium on Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

As an atomic emission spectroscopy technique, laserinduced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), first proposed by Breech and Cross in 1962 [1], has attracted much academic and industrial interest for its unique properties.By focusing a pulsed laser onto the surface of a target, laser-induced plasmas can be generated.The simplicity of sample preparation of the laser ablation process enables LIBS to directly analyze solid, liquid, or gaseous materials in the atmosphere, making it a convenient tool for chemical analyses.The unique features of LIBS such as requiring little or no sample preparation, allowing remote detection, and facilitating multiple elemental analyses have contributed to its rapid development in recent years.Since LIBS was proposed in 1962, related research has quickly spread; however, the challenges of poor stability, reliability, and reproducibility remain.Since the 1990s, coinciding with significant improvement in performance of hardware such as the lasers, spectrometers, and detectors, LIBS research has reached prominence with various applications in different fields such as industrial production [2] and environmental monitoring [3].To further develop LIBS and make it a more practical tool in chemical analyses, the first international LIBS conference, held in 2000 in Pisa, Italy, facilitated the formation of the international LIBS community.Since then, LIBS has entered an era of fast and comprehensive development.Currently, three major LIBS communities, specifically, a Euro-Mediterranean Society (EMSLIBS), a North America Society (NASLIBS), and an Asian Society (ASLIBS), are jointly promoting LIBS science and