A review of calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

As an important branch of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), calibration-free LIBS (CF-LIBS) is a famous element quantitative analysis method without standards. This method has many advantages such as real-time, in-situ, on-site, single-point, and multi-elemental analysis, with excellent potential for geology, archaeology, industrial and environmental monitoring, and biomedicine. In this review, we summarized the development of CF-LIBS. It covered a brief description of the basic theory of CF-LIBS, several modified methods and variants, proposed to overcome the non-stoichiometric ablation, self-absorption effect, and high algorithmic complexity. Furthermore, the applications of CF-LIBS in a variety of fields were reviewed. Finally, the existing problems of CF-LIBS and its potential were discussed.