Beryllium is an extremely hazardous substance because of its effects on the human body. Regulatory standards establishing the maximum permissible concentration of Be in soils of farmlands and population centers at 1.08 mg/kg are currently in the approval process. Be in soils could be determined below this level by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) using UV laser radiation (355 nm). A recording delay of 0.75 μs and an exposure of 1 μs were optimal for the LIBS Be analysis. The Be detection limit in soils under these conditions was 0.07 mg/kg.

The possibility of quantitative detection of trace zinc levels in soils per single laser pulse using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is shown. The development of laser plasma and the signal-to-noise ratio are studied when evaporating soils by the second (532 nm) and the third (355 nm) harmonics of an Nd:YAG pulse laser. The use of the third harmonics permits one to reach the zinc detection limit (18 ppm) below Occupational Exposure Limits (OEL) in soil (150 ppm) and below the mean abundance in the earth's crust of zinc (83 ppm). This allows the use of the suggested technique for the rapid determination of soil pollution with zinc and searching for geochemical anomalies.