Continuously rotating grating rapid-scan spectrophotometer

Abstract

An improved rapid-scan spectrophotometer with an optical grating continuously rotating at a constant angular velocity. An optical trigger actuated by the rotating turntable supporting the grating, actuates an analog to digital converter to sample at discrete times an output signal from the sample detector over the desired wavelength range and to store the digitized information in a direct memory access (DMA) buffer. The information may be retrieved as desired from the buffer for further processing or permanent data storage. With each revolution of the optical grating, the range (typically 15.degree.) of wavelengths from the grating that provides useful information is sampled by the analog to digital converter and stored in the buffer. Because the grating is continuously rotating at a constant angular velocity and is not limited by the inertia of optical components, the spectrophotometer can be operated at a much higher scanning speed than an oscillating or vibrating grating spectrophotometer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.