What is a spectrometer’s Blaze Wavelength?

Apr 21, 2017 | Glossary of Spectroscopy Terms, Spectrograph

The blaze wavelength is the wavelength at which the grating is most efficient. Take a look at the grating efficiency curve for the UV BLUE-Wave spectrometer model: This grating is most efficient at 300 nm, so the blaze wavelength is 300 nm. This is determined mostly...

What is a spectrometer slit?

Apr 21, 2017 | Glossary of Spectroscopy Terms, Spectrograph

The slit is an opening that controls how much light enters the spectrometer. The width of the slit affects resolution; the narrower the slit, the higher the resolution. However, narrower slits also decrease signal strength. These two factors must be balanced when...

What is Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM)?

Apr 21, 2017 | Characterization, Glossary of Spectroscopy Terms

The full width at half maximum (FWHM) is the width of a line shape at half of its maximum amplitude, as shown below: A closely related quantity is the half width at half maximum (HWHM) or the Resolving Resolution and it is half of the FWHM. For Gaussian line shapes,...

What is Spectrometer Sensitivity?

Apr 18, 2017 | Characterization, Glossary of Spectroscopy Terms

There are many different definitions of sensitivity. For StellarNet, we use the word sensitivity to mean the total system response of a spectrometer versus wavelength. This is a combination of the detector response, grating response, and any loss due to optics....

Technical Note – Vibrational Spectroscopy: Infrared vs. Raman

Apr 12, 2017 | Application, News, Raman

Vibrational spectroscopies are integral in analyzing some of the most fundamentally important processes in physical chemistry: molecular vibrations. While there are many different experimental techniques used to analyze those vibrations, most are variations of the...