Miniature fiber optic spectrometers for all applications...   you can choose from low cost CCD linear arrays, medium cost back-thinned CCDs and our premium cooled back thinned high quantum efficiency detector for demanding low noise applications.

Spectrometers are built to order, with your choice of grating & slit for optimizing your applications.

Spectrometer architecture is based un USB control through our Spectrasuite software. Our newest design, the Jaz, is a modular system that lets you combine multiple spectrometers, light sources and communications modules into a single portable device. We offer trade-ins and trade-ups, rent to own, academic discounts and creative problem solviong to get you a system that will fit your needs.

All spectrometers have a 3 year warranty.  This is the #1 selling brand of spectrometers in the world! Over 250,000 units sold. Contact us today!  Thanks!  Mike Morris
Click on  the links below for full specifications.  Are you looking for our IR spectrometers? click here

Overview
Spectroscopy is a technique in which the design criteria exist as a set of trade-offs. The optimal spectrometer for you depends entirely upon the application – and your budget. The design process begins by asking a series of questions: What are you trying to measure? How fast do you need the measurement? Where is the sample? Who will be operating the instrument? Then, there’s the most important question of all: Why are you making the measurements?


Design Concepts
The first Ocean Optics spectrometer was the S1000, so named after the miniature S bench and the 1024 element detector. The current versions of S bench spectrometers include the USB2000+, USB4000 and Jaz.

The USB2000+ and the Jaz use a Sony 2048 element CCD array.  CCD detectors are ideal for spectroscopy because they accumulate signal during a fixed integration period and then readout the data in a parallel shift from all the pixels at once. This "staring" mode is very low noise and is ideal for low light level applications. The SONY CCD was designed for bar code readers, and benefits from the enourmous investment in manufacturing technology made for mass market photonic devices. Ocean Optics modifies this detector by adding a coating to spoil the etalon effect that arises from the poly-silicon gate structure, and we add UV response and quartz windows as well as linear variable order sorting filters and cylindrical lenses. The SONY chip has exceptionally low image lag, so its the preferred choice for gated measurements like LIBS or laser induced fluorescence.

The USB4000 uses a Toshiba CCD that has somehwat smaller pixels, and more of them (3648 vs 2048 for the SONY). It's better for our systems designed for highest resolution, but its slightly less sensitive and it has more pronounced image lag.

The larger HR benches were developed for better optical resolution, in particular to look at the modal structure of lasers and spectral broadening of ultrafast lasers. The detectors are the same as the S bench, SONY (HR2000) or Toshiba (HR4000) CCD arrays.

The fast CCD detectors designed for fax machines do have a higher than necessary dark level readout noise, and their response in the UV from the lumogen coating is not ideal. Our backthinned high quantum efficiency, cooled CCD from Hammamatsu is used in the QE65000 and its upgraded new cersion QE65-Pro. This gives us exceptional sensitivity and very low dark noise and its the preferred system for lowest light applications like Raman. We have a budget version of this with an uncooled, but high QE detector in the Mayapro.  The main disadvantage of these detectors is their electronics are slower.

A very low cost and tiny spectrometer, the STS, uses a CMOS sensor.  These sensors are ubiquitous in the imaging world, and so are quite low cost. And, they have built in A/D and other electronics that keeps the size to a minumum. The main disadvanatge is they are much less sensitive than the CCD detectors.

All of the detectors mentioned above are Si based, and are responsive from ~200nm - 1100nm. To go further in the infrared we use InGaAs arrays. These come in a standard recipe for 900 - 1700nm and enhanced versions for 1000nm - 2100nm and 1000nm - 2500nm.  The sensitivity decreases as wavelengths get longer, so the most sensitive is the 900-1700nm InGaAs.  These arrays are cooled and are used in our NIRQuest spectrometers. Their main advanatge is speed, as they collect the whole spectra at once, since they are "staring" type detectors.

A lower cost approach is to use a single detector and a scanning monochrometer. Thats the basis for the SIR spectrometers. There are two versions, an enhanced InGaAs detector for the 900 - 2600nm range, and an InAs deetctor for the 1000 - 3400nm range. Again, sensitivity is lower for the longer wavelength InAs detector.  The scanning architecture and large area single detector provides much higher optical resolution and higher signal to noise, but the trade-off is a longer time to acquire a spectra (measured in seconds).

Picking the right spectrometer for your application is easy if you just give us a call. We are glad to discuss the various options and offer suggestions for better performance, best value and the ideal set of accessories you'll need to make the best possible measurements.  727.230.1697