ABLATOM democratizes LIBS technology, the technique employed by NASA to identify Martian rocks, by launching its new generation of LIBS microscopes!
ABLASCANTM will be demonstrated at booth 60711-18, #EurekaPark, #VenetianExpo
2.5 to 10 times faster than conventional equipment (1 million chemical measurements in just 15 minutes compared to 3–15 hours using traditional techniques).
Customizable, plug-and-play, and automated – usable by both industrial technicians and scientific researchers.
Addresses critical societal challenges, from tracking strategic resources in ores, mapping lithium distribution in batteries, and detecting metal fragility in nuclear materials to ensuring the quality of strategic metals in recycled waste streams.
A Revolutionary Microscope Within Reach! Emerging from the Institut Lumière Matière (ILM), the deeptech startup ABLATOM introduces ABLASCANTM, the first intelligent LIBS microscope capable of revealing the atomic composition of materials in milliseconds – reliably and automatically. Backed by 15 years of R&D, this customizable, plug-and-play microscope democratizes cutting-edge laser technology, previously difficult to access, to meet the needs of both laboratories and industries across the entire material lifecycle. With ABLASCANTM, there’s no need to be a chemist, physicist, or data processing expert. Enhanced by AI, this innovation significantly accelerates and automates the chemical analysis of materials at the microscopic level. Its speed outperforms conventional equipment by 2.5 to 10 times, even on large surfaces. This revolutionary technology enables resource tracking in ores, maps lithium distribution in batteries, identifies metal fragility in nuclear applications, and ensures the quality control of strategic metals in recycled waste streams.
ABLATOM Democratizes LIBS with Its ABLASCANTM Microscope…
ABLASCANTM is a major breakthrough in the context of energy transition and reindustrialization. Until now, LIBS technology required advanced expertise and large-scale installations. With ABLASCANTM, ABLATOM transforms this technology into a compact, automated, user-friendly, and widely accessible tool.
Built upon 15 years of R&D and ABLATOM’s unique expertise, ABLASCANTM masters the entire analytical chain – from hardware to data processing and measurement protocols. This plug-and-play solution eliminates the need for specialized expertise, making material analysis both accessible and reliable.
ABLASCANTM addresses two fundamental needs:
For laboratories: An open tool that expands scientific exploration and accelerates the discovery and development of new material properties.
For industries: A fast, ergonomic solution deployable directly on-site, eliminating the lengthy and costly processes of traditional lab-based analysis.
…The Custom, Plug-and-Play, Automated Chemical Analysis Laboratory…
ABLASCANTM redefines chemical material characterization with unmatched performance. It delivers analysis speeds up to 10 times faster than conventional LIBS equipment, performing 1 million chemical measurements in just 15 minutes compared to 3–15 hours using traditional techniques.
This innovation opens new avenues for exploration, scanning large surfaces (for instance, 200 cm²) in a single sequence while maintaining micrometric resolution under ambient temperature and pressure conditions. Versatile and adaptable, ABLASCANTM is suitable for a wide range of materials – metals, plastics, ceramics, glass, and rocks – throughout their lifecycle, from extraction to recycling.
Its unique specifications rely on advanced algorithms developed by ABLATOM, which automatically identify a material’s chemical elements with unparalleled accuracy, even detecting traces previously invisible to conventional technologies. This automation democratizes high-level analyses, reducing operational costs and boosting productivity.
In just minutes, any operator can obtain a qualitative and quantitative analysis report, including optical images and detailed chemical maps of the material. By simplifying the analysis process, ABLASCANTM maximizes productivity and transforms chemical analysis into a strategic tool for both laboratories and industries.
…That revolutionizes LIBS microscopy for today’s material control…
ABLASCANTM stands out as an innovative solution to major societal challenges. In the nuclear sector, it detects and highlights metal fragility – a critical issue, for example, in ensuring the safety of installations over several decades.
In recycling, ABLASCANTM overcomes the limitations of current methods, where sample preparation and analysis are often time-consuming and fail to represent lots comprising several tons of material. By scanning materials directly, with little to no sample preparation, it delivers representative analyses in just minutes, enabling the precise valuation of valuable resources. This level of precision is crucial for qualifying recycling processes, stabilizing costs, and optimizing material recovery.
Finally, in geosciences, ABLASCANTM contributes to the exploration of strategic resources such as lithium and copper, while playing a key role in understanding environmental phenomena like paleoclimate.
…And Drives the Development of Tomorrow’s Materials
ABLASCANTM also enables the development of new materials, accelerating research into next-generation applications. Its ability to quickly explore previously unknown chemical properties drives innovation and supports key sectors such as renewable energy and the circular economy.
As a revolutionary tool, ABLASCANTM is essential for revalorizing yesterday’s materials, controlling today’s, and creating tomorrow’s – more sustainable, higher-performing materials tailored to the needs of an ever-evolving society.
How It Works
LIBS is an entirely optical analysis technique that reveals the chemical composition of any material (solid, liquid, or gas) in just a few milliseconds. Its principle involves focusing a brief laser pulse to sample a fraction of material, forming a plasma. The optical emissions from this plasma are analyzed to detect, identify, map, and quantify the material’s chemical elements.
Key competitive advantages:
• Sampling, excitation, and detection in a single process.
• Instant chemical composition analysis.
• Detection of all periodic table elements, including light elements.
• Large surface mapping at micrometric resolution.