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Name: Samhar Al-Sayed Grade: 12 F Subject: Physics Teacher: Omar Araji

A spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is commonly used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials by measuring variables like light intensity or polarization at different wavelengths. Spectrometers produce spectral lines and measure their wavelengths and intensities, operating over a wide range from gamma rays to the far infrared. Modern spectrometers generally use a diffraction grating, movable slit, and photodetector controlled by a computer.

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138 views4 pages

Name: Samhar Al-Sayed Grade: 12 F Subject: Physics Teacher: Omar Araji

A spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is commonly used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials by measuring variables like light intensity or polarization at different wavelengths. Spectrometers produce spectral lines and measure their wavelengths and intensities, operating over a wide range from gamma rays to the far infrared. Modern spectrometers generally use a diffraction grating, movable slit, and photodetector controlled by a computer.

Uploaded by

samhar1234
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Name: Samhar Al-Sayed

Grade: 12 F
Subject: Physics
Teacher: Omar Araji
Definition:

A spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or


spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of
light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum,
typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials.
The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but
could also, for instance, be the polarization state. The
independent variable is usually the wavelength of the light or a
unit directly proportional to the photon energy, such as
wavenumber or electron volts, which has a reciprocal
relationship to wavelength. A spectrometer is used in
spectroscopy for producing spectral lines and measuring their
wavelengths and intensities. Spectrometer is a term that is
applied to instruments that operate over a very wide range of
wavelengths, from gamma rays and X-rays into the far infrared.
If the region of interest is restricted to near the visible spectrum,
the study is called spectrophotometry.
In general, any particular instrument will operate over a small
portion of this total range because of the different techniques
used to measure different portions of the spectrum. Below
optical frequencies (that is, at microwave and radio frequencies),
the spectrum analyzer is a closely related electronic device.
Device for detecting and analyzing wavelengths of
electromagnetic radiation, commonly used for molecular
spectroscopy; more broadly, any of various instruments in which
an emission (as of electromagnetic radiation or particles) is
spread out according to some property (as energy or mass) into a
spectrum and measurements are made at points or regions along
the spectrum. As used in traditional laboratory analysis, a
spectrometer includes a radiation source and detection and
analysis equipment. Emission spectrometers excite molecules of
a sample to higher energy states and analyze the radiation
emitted when they decay to the original.

Spectroscopes

Comparison of different diffraction based spectrometers:


Reflection optics, refraction optics, fiber optics
Spectroscopes are often used in astronomy and some branches
of chemistry. Early spectroscopes were simply prisms with
graduations marking wavelengths of light. Modern
spectroscopes, such as monochromators, generally use a
diffraction grating, a movable slit, and some kind of
photodetector, all automated and controlled by a computer. The
spectroscope was invented by Joseph von Fraunhofer.
When a material is heated to incandescence it emits light that is
characteristic of the atomic makeup of the material. Particular
light frequencies give rise to sharply defined bands on the scale
which can be thought of as fingerprints. For example, the
element sodium has a very characteristic double yellow band
known as the Sodium D-lines at 588.9950 and 589.5924
nanometers, the color of which will be familiar to anyone who
has seen a low pressure sodium vapor lamp.
In the original spectroscope design in the early 19th century,
light entered a slit and a collimating lens transformed the light
into a thin beam of parallel rays. The light then passed through a
prism (in hand-held spectroscopes, usually an Amici prism) that
refracted the beam into a spectrum because different
wavelengths were refracted different amounts due to dispersion.
This image was then viewed through a tube with a scale that was
transposed upon the spectral image, enabling its direct
measurement.
With the development of photographic film, the more accurate
spectrograph was created. It was based on the same principle as
the spectroscope, but it had a camera in place of the viewing
tube. In recent years the electronic circuits built around the
photomultiplier tube have replaced the camera, allowing real-
time spectrographic analysis with far greater accuracy. Arrays of
photosensors are also used in place of film in spectrographic
systems. Such spectral analysis, or spectroscopy, has become an
important scientific tool for analyzing the composition of
unknown material and for studying astronomical phenomena
and testing astronomical theories.
In modern spectrographs, the spectrum is generally given in the
form of photon number (in the UV, visible, and near-IR spectral
ranges) or Watts (in the mid- to far-IR) and is displayed with an
abscissa given in terms of wavelength, wavenumber, or eV.

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