Successfully applying spectroscopy to scientific problems requires a basic understanding of the components that are available to produce and control electromagnetic radiation. This outline leads to documents that discuss basic optics, light and excitation sources, wavelength separators, and light detectors. A separate document on optical materials gives practical guidelines for choosing optics for different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Basic Optics
- mirrors
- prisms
- lenses
- polarizers
- Blackbody
- Discharge and arc lamps
- Hollow-cathode lamp
- Lasers
- Filters
- Monochromators
- Interferometers
- Overview
- Photomultiplier tube
- Semiconductors (photodiodes and photovoltaics)
- Photodiode array
- Charge-coupled detector array
