Abstract: The present application and study situation of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) are reviewed. The principle,characters,history and recent trend of LIBS are introduced systematically.Theoretically,some equilibrium and non equilibrium problems in laser-induced plasma are studied deeply. In addition,the LIBS technology has widely applied in some fields,such as combustion,metallurgy,water and soil pollution,artwork authenticate,polymer identification and so on.Furthermore,there are some instruments coming into the market.