FLUORESCENT SPECTROPHOTOMETER SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATIC CALIBRATION AND IMPROVED OPTICS BLOCK

摘要

A spectrophotometer system includes an optics block housing an excitation lamp and a cell for receiving a gas to be detected. The excitation lamp excites atoms of the gas to be detected to produce photons. The spectrophotometer system also includes a photomultiplier tube assembly and an analog-to-digital converter. The photomultiplier tube assembly detects the photons, and produces an analog output accordingly. The analog-to-digital converter converts this analog output to a digital output. The photomultiplier tube assembly and the analog-to-digital converter of a spectrophotometer system are calibrated together so that a zero input to the analog-to-digital converter may be defined as an absence of photons. The optics block is configured to minimize scattering of light, without a lens, so that the output of the spectrophotometer system is a function of the number of atoms of the gas to be detected and not of scattered light.