Purpose

Spectroscopy is a very helpful instrument
for analysing light emitting processes like
flames or plasmas without disturbing
the process. Main topics at ISL are 

• temperature measurement,
• identification of the components of solids, liquids or gases,
• measurement of atomic or molecular properties.

Temperature determination

Modified PLANCK function (yellow) fi tted to the
spectrum of a propellant flame




Model-function (red) fitted to the rotational
spectrum of CuH emitted by a propellant flame



Spectrum of a laser-induced Cu-plasma (red curve: 40-fold enhanced). Temperature, calculated from line intensities: 11100 K. Spectra like this also provide information about transition probabilities of lines from highly excited states

Skills

By means of an intensified gateable camera
or by a specially developed CCD streak
camera, ISL is able to study short,
rapidly changing phenomena (e.g. plasma
discharges, highspeed combustion) with high
temporal resolution. 

Temporal evolution of the Cu-spectrum from an electrical discharge

Our spectroscopic equipment is transportable and can be used at different locations.

Facilities

• Spectrometers of different sizes and different spectral resolutions
• ICCD camera 
• CCD streak camera
• Small spectrometers with built-in detector arrays 
• Spectroscopic data-bases and software for spectral analysis

Setup for the measurement of laser-induced plasmas (here from a Cu target): the spectrum is taken by an ICCD-camera at a grating spectrograph with f = 0,75 m