For the purpose of employing laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), nanosecond laser pulses (6 ns FWHM) from a standard Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (2nd harmonic) are modulated or chopped-using a novel method utilizing a variable air-pressure optical cell-to limit the inverse-Bremsstrahlung photon absorption process occurring in the breakdown plasma. The resulting plasma does not ignite flammable mixtures, but plasma emission is sufficiently strong to enable the characterization of reactants without strong perturbation (i.e., no ignition or shock wave results from the breakdown plasma). Two strong atomic emission lines, H (656 nm) and N II (568 nm), are chosen to find correlations between the plasma emission spectrum and the fuel concentration; plasma emission is captured after a delay of 20 ns with a gate width of 60 ns, the time over which there are well defined emission peaks. The chopped laser pulse is created within the pressurized optical cell with an initial breakdown plasma, by focusing the beam in high-pressure air. The pulse width of the laser beam transmitted through the cell is dependent on the cell pressure, and for this work, a pulse duration of approximately 600 ps was derived from the cell operated at a pressure of 10 bar. The chopped pulses were used for LIBS, and a 2D concentration distribution of a stoichiometric methane-air flow in ambient air were recorded without combustion reactions initiated by the laser-induced plasma. (C) 2020 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.