Chemical Analysis and Swords

You were pretty clear actually. Speaking as an electronics student, I think you may be able to measure the resistance of the blade and judge the carbon content of a monosteel blade. I say this because composition is what controls the resistance resistors. Spring steels may be tricky, given their Si content. I don't know how to go about testing folded blades with 2 or more steel types.

Yeah, you are pretty much right, but the technique I am proposing destroy as much as around 1 pg to 1 ng (that would be 0,00000000001g to 0,000000001g). Even though it destroys some of the atoms, I feel like it wouldn't bother the owner of the sword.

Let me explain myself a little better. My masters thesis already have a technique. It is called LIBS - Light Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy. Basically it is a super laser that breaks some atoms and uses the light that it will irradiate to sort what atoms are contained within the sample. It is as simple as that.

Now I wanted to do something cool with the laser, but I have no clue whatsoever to do with it. So, here I am to ask, if you had access to such a cool laser, why would you shoot a sword with it?

My first thought was to use it against some art pieces, involving the analysis of fakes and real stuff, then I thought of something related to archeology, so my mind naturally drifted to swords. Is there anything relevant that this technique could reveal about it? What would you like to understand about this topic that could be solved with it? Like modern swords or antiques? Or archeological stuff in general?