Alternative selection of Raman or LIBS spectral information in hierarchical discrimination of raw sapphires according to geographical origin for accuracy improvement.

Both Raman spectroscopy and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) were cooperatively utilized to improve the geographical origin identification of raw sapphires from five different countries (Mozambique, Laos, Australia, Rwanda, and Congo). A hierarchical support vector machine (H-SVM) was used for multi-group identification. Initially, accuracy improved to 87.5% using merged Raman-LIBS data compared to those of using only Raman (82.8%) or LIBS (71.9%) information. This improvement was attributed to incorporating two complimentary spectroscopic datasets that provided molecular vibrational and elemental information. However, merging both spectroscopic datasets is may not be the best choice since it would make distinct and sample-descriptive information in one spectroscopic dataset less recognized for analysis by the inclusion of less characteristic information in another spectroscopic dataset; using only Raman or LIBS information at each discrimination stage would be more effective. When Raman information was utilized during the first three discrimination stages followed by LIBS data during the fourth (last) discrimination stage in H-SVM, the accuracy improved to 90.6%. The proper selection of molecular vibrational or elemental sample information at different discrimination stages is attributed to this improvement.