microspectrophotometry

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stevelev1
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:01 am

microspectrophotometry

#1 Post by stevelev1 » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:06 am

Do you know of a way (hopefully not too expensive) that I can attach an infrared spectrometer (including a slit and diffraction grating) to the vertical tube of a trinocular microscope along with a digital camera and associated software that can produce the infrared spectra of the specimen being viewed through the binocular eyepiece? This allows identification and study of the elements and molecular components (infrared vibrational spectra) of a specific portion of the specimen. The field of microspectrophotometry is facinating but the mainstream instruments are prohibitively expensive for the individual hobbyist microscopist.

PeteM
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Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:22 am
Location: N. California

Re: microspectrophotometry

#2 Post by PeteM » Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:49 am

You might find a surplus scope from the semiconductor industry, used to find "hot spots" on chips and boards as a stand or chassis on the scope end of things. These typically used reflected objectives (sort of like telescope mirrors) to avoid reducing the IR signal too much. And then a camera sensor capable of seeing in the IR range. I was once offered such a beast for very little (but had no use for it). With luck you might find this cheap.

I suspect that you'd then have to couple an affordable spectrometer to it (and pretty sure the cheap ones only go into the near infrared) to graph and measure the area you've focused upon. Some fiber optics cables for these spectrometers will pass a fair amount of IR and that should be pretty easy to couple to the optical train. Depending upon how far into the infrared you want to go, it should be pretty easy to see what affordable spectromers are out there today in the hundreds rather than thousands of $$$ range.

Somewhere on this site is another thread about spectrometers (from France, Palo Alto, etc.) that are reasonably affordable with options a bit into UV and a bit into IR ranges.

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