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Spectrometers

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 601–602 (2009)Cite this article

Analysis of the spectral content of light is important in countless applications, ranging from biomedicine to material analysis and product quality control, reports Neil Savage.

Spectrometers, devices for measuring how the intensity of light varies with wavelength, have an important role in a wide variety of fields. Raman spectroscopy, which relies on vibrational scattering of photons within a material to cause a frequency shift in the collected light, is used by physicists to study the properties of semiconductors, and by chemists to analyse molecular reactions. Biologists use spectrometers to detect the light emitted from fluorescent tags attached to proteins, and computer-chip manufacturers rely on spectrometers for quality-control inspections. “Basically, everybody can use a spectrometer,” says Ed Gooding, Spectroscopy Product Manager at Princeton Instruments.

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  1. Neil Savage is a freelance science and technology journalist based in, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

    Neil Savage

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Savage, N. Spectrometers. Nature Photon 3, 601–602 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.185

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