Spectroscopy Tips Follow the links for details:
- Optical instrument designs for spectrometers
- How to clean optics and gratings
- Imaging Spectrometers, How they are built and perform
- Choosing gratings, ruled replicas vs. holographics
- Reflectance of various materials from 1nm to 10microns
- Choosing or Specifying a monochromator, parameters to consider
- Some Applications and related Instruments
Breakdown of Regions within the Optical Electromagetic Spectrum
These names for various sub-regions of optical electromagnetic radiation are from the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Publication 50, International Electrotechnical Vocabulary, Lighting 1987. We added some categories to the listing, as we find them to be in popular use. They are marked with an *.
Electromagnetic radiation at wavelengths between the region of transistion to x-rays (about 1nm) and the region of transition to microwaves (about 1mm) is called optical radiation. Electromagnetic radiation in this range can be treated by optical methods (for example, imaged by mirrors, diffracted by gratings.) Radiation shorter than 200nm is strongly absorbed by the Oxygen and other atmospheric constituents. These wavelengths must be studied under vacuum or in very good purge environments. In the infrared, a measureable absorption occurs in the bands of water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane, among others. Vacuum or purge may be required depending on the exact region of interest.
| * Soft X Ray, XUV | 1 to 30nm | - | - |
| Extreme Ultraviolet, EUV | 1 to 100nm | 1.2keV to 12.4eV | 1*108 to 1*105 cm-1 |
| Vacuum Ultraviolet (UV-C), VUV | 100 to 200nm | 12.4 to 6.2eV | 1*105 to 5*104 cm-1 |
| Far Ultraviolet (UV-C), FUV | 200 to 280nm | 6.2 to 4.4eV | 50,000 to 36,000cm-1 |
| Middle Ultraviolet, UV-B | 280 to 315nm | 4.4 to 3.9eV | 36,000 to 32,000cm-1 |
| Near Ultraviolet, UV-A | 315 to 380nm | 3.9 to 3.3eV | 32,000 to 26,000cm-1 |
| Visible, VIS | 380 to 780nm | 3.3 to 1.6eV | 26,000 to 13,000cm-1 |
| Near Infrared (IR-A), NIR | 780 to 1,400nm | 1.6 to 0.9eV | 13,000 to 7,000cm-1 |
| Near Infrared (IR-B), NIR | 1,400 to 3,000nm | 0.9 to 0.4eV | 7,000 to 3,300cm-1 |
| * Mid Wave Infrared (MWIR) | 3,000 to 5,000nm | - | - |
| * Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) | 8,000 to 12,000nm | - | - |
| Middle Infrared (IR-C), MIR | 3,000 to 50,000nm | 0.4 to 0.025eV | 3,300 to 200cm-1 |
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