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7.1: General Design of Optical Instruments

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    366605
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    The spectroscopic techniques in the chapters that follow use instruments that share several common basic components: a source of energy; a means for holding the sample of interest to us; a device that can isolate a narrow range of wavelengths; a detector for measuring the signal; and a signal processor that displays the signal in a form convenient for the analyst. Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) shows four common ways of stringing together these units.



    Four common optical benches for spectroscopy.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Four common optical benches for spectroscopy. Each of (a), (b), and (c) includes a source of energy either in the form of electromagnetic radiation (a, b) or thermal energy (c), a means for introducing the sample, a means for selecting the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation to monitor, a detector, and a signal processor. In (d), the source of energy comes from a chemical reaction. The optical bench in (a) is suitable for absorbance measurements; the optical bench in (b) is suitable for fluorescence measurements; the optical bench in (c) is suitable for emission measurements, and the optical bench in (d) is suitable for chemiluminescence measurements.

    The remaining sections of this chapter provide general information on each of these units. More specific details appear in the chapters on individual methods.


    This page titled 7.1: General Design of Optical Instruments is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David Harvey.

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