Details of a spectrometer

In order to use a spectrometer, certain key elements must be spotted:

• the ON/OFF button, if present
• the sample compartment
• the wavelength selector, and eventually the light source selector
• the output panel
• the blank adjustment command, i.e. for absorbance A=0 or transmittance T=100%

All or part of the command pool can be regrouped on a keyboard/few buttons that allow to navigate through the display menus on a monitoring screen. Some spectrophotometers are entirely controlled via a computer software installed on a personal computer. In this case, please refer to the software instruction manual.

WARNING: some more sophisticated spectrometers possess two measurement canals that work simultaneously. They are “double light beam” instruments. The values of I₀ and I are determined at the same time and are compared in order to provide the desired result.