On-Line Computer Control of a Luminescent Spectrometer with Off-Line Computer Data Processing and Display

Abstract

A luminescent spectrometer has been interfaced with a general purpose digital computer operated in a time-share mode. The computer controls both monochromators and logs the data on magnetic tape. By means of its constituent mode subroutines, the computer controls the spectrometer in any of six modes for the acquisition of luminescent information. It will record the excitation, emission or detailed three-dimensional spectra, integrate luminescent intensity at fixed wavelength coordinates, locate the wavelength region and general form of an unknown spectrum, and record luminescent intensity at fixed wavelength coordinates at selected time intervals, or oscillate either one or both monochromators between two fixed points so that the change of luminescence at either one or two points of the emission and excitation wavelengths can be monitored as a function of time. The data are processed off-line with a CDC 6600 computer that permits the data to be portrayed in several graphic forms. The raw data can be corrected for instrumental response, smoothed, differentiated; data arrays can be either magnified or eliminated by masking.