Ariel is a fiberoptics spectrometer for industrial and R&D desktop applications. It uses unfolded Czerny-Turner system with 80mm optical benchand torroid mirror for astigmatism correction.Spectrometer fiberoptics input is SMA 905. Gigabit LAN and USB 2 connections and extensive auxilary port functions for communication with other devices. It is a rugged spectrometer with fixed optical bench without moving or adjusting parts.
Ariel fiberoptics spectrometer has low aberration design for the full spectrum. The spectrum has clean symmetrical peaks and improved sensitivity at short and near-infrared wavelengths. All this coupled with fast integration time, onboard signal conditioning and LAN connectivity make Ariel spectrometer perfectly suited for industrial and R&D applications, read more...
ARIEL SPECTROMETER: BASIC SPECIFICATION
Wavelength range, nm
Wavelength resolution (with 20µm slit)
Dynamic range
Minimum integration time
Onboard data conditioning
Detector
Optical system
Optical bench
Diffraction grating
Astigmatism correction
Input fiber connector
F#
ADC
Connection
Auxiliary port
Power
Minimum integration time
Imaging (detector) plane of spectrometer with and without astignatism correction. A. Ariel spectrometer B. Same design w/o astigmatism correction. C. Design with 600 g/mm (typical for small spectrometers) w/o astigmatism correction
Spherical mirrors spectrometers can have significant astigmatism that is not corrected by Czerny-Turner design. Astigmatism means that a point at the entrance slit becomes a line at the imaging plane (on the detector). This results in the loss of light and increased scattering potential. Essentially, in case of oblique incidence, spherical mirror has different focus in sagittal and tangential planes. Astigmatism can be corrected using a cylindrical lens or torroid mirror. Torroid mirror is a cleaner but more expensive solution. This correction increases light collection 4x-5x. It also decreases the coma across the spectrum – this is important for clean symmetrical peaks in spectroscopic data.
CMOS detector response is fairly linear at the low signals (<50% of dynamic range). But becomes non-linear at higher signals. The non-linearity is caused by the source- follower and charge to voltage converting capacitor. Hence, nonlinearity is slightly different from pixel to pixel. It is accurately corrected by factory calibration. The residual non-linearity is < 0.5%
Dark signal depends on integration time and temperature. For an active CMOS detector, each pixel has a bit different dark current with a different rate of change. Each spectrometer is carefully calibrated on per pixel basis and for range of operating temperatures. This calibration is stored on board and automatically loaded depending on temperature of the detector. This way, the dark is fully corrected.