OPTICAL SCANNER CALIBRATION DEVICE

摘要

An optical scanning system includes a power meter that during calibration measures optical power in the excitation beam at various index settings of a variable optical attenuator. The system constructs a lookup table that relates incident excitation beam power to the index settings of the attenuator, and thereafter uses the table to select the appropriate setting for the attenuator in order to deliver to the sample an excitation beam of a specified optical power. The system calibrates the gain of a detector by redirecting, or reflecting, the excitation beam of known intensity to the detector. The system produces a lookup table that relates the gain setting to the actual gain of the detector, and thereafter uses the table to select the appropriate gain setting for data collection and/or to normalize the data.