Ocean Optics Red Tide Guide User Manual

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170-00000-RT-02-1108

If you click on the + sign to the left of the spectrometer
image shown on your screen, the following information
appears:
Acquisition parameters that you set (integration time,
scans-to-average, boxcar smoothing).

Whether dark and/or reference spectra have been stored,
the graph (A, B, C, etc.) associated with this spectrometer
that appears in the right pane (important if you have in-
stalled more than one spectrometer)

Spectrometer’s properties (serial number, firmware level,
number of pixels, and wavelengths).

INTEGRATION TIME

Integration time is the “exposure time” for the CCD array.
The default value is 100ms. If the integration time is too
high the trendline will “saturate” by exceeding the maxi-
mum count of 4095. (See Fig.3) No harm is done, but to
see the full trace the integration time must be reduced, or
the light source attenuated.

EXPERIMENT DATA

The start mode is called Scope mode. This shows raw
data in photon counts and is fine for most physics applica-
tions. Note that only the

is live. The other experiment

modes are grayed out.
Before experiment data can be collected, dark and refer-
ence readings must be taken.

DARK READING

The trendline in Scope mode does not drop to zero. The
dark reading is about 160.

To perform quantitative experiments the dark reading
must be recorded and subtracted from the Scope mode
values. To do this, block any light entering the spectrome-
ter and then click on the Store Dark Spectrum icon. The
Subtract Dark Spectrum icon will go live. Clicking on it will
subtract the dark value and the trendline will drop to the x-
axis. Zero is now zero and the math will work.

SCANS TO AVERAGE

SpectraSuite can average consecutive scans to smooth
out noise. This is normally not required but can be useful
for low intensity sources.

BOXCAR WIDTH

Boxcar is the averaging of the counts from adjacent
groups of pixels. The effect of increasing the boxcar width
is to reduce the wavelength resolution. For Red Tide it is
not normally required.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Store Dark Spectrum

Store Reference Spectrum

Subtract Dark Spectrum

Fig. 4