A New Accessory for Infrared Emission Spectroscopy Measurements

Abstract

The principal problem in measurement of emission IR spectra is the low signal-to-noise ratio resulting from the large background radiation relative to sample emission. One method of increasing the signal is to collect the emitted radiation over a very large solid angle using an ellipsoidal mirror. In this method, placing the sample at the short focal length of the ellipsoid both increases the amount of radiation collected for an improved signal-to-noise ratio as well as facilitates sampling of small areas. For locating the area of interest, a microscope is mounted on the emission accessory. The results of testing this emission accessory under different operating conditions such as different samples, emission angles, temperatures, etc., are presented.