Patent GB-1138445-A (GB)
Title: Electronic spectrophotometer
IPC: G01J3/42
Filed: 1966-02-22
Abstract: 1,138,445. Spectrometers. INSTYTUT  CHEMII   FIZYCZNEJ   POLSKIEJ   AKADEMII   NAUK.  Feb. 22, 1966 [Feb. 22, 1965], No. 7771/66. Heading G2J. [Also in-Division G1] A photo-electric spectrometer utilizes a monochromater in which the light source is a light spot moving on the phosphor screen of a cathode ray tube. The spectrometer is used for transmission investigation of a test sample 10, Fig. 1, the monochromator producing light which varies cyclically in wavelength, and which is transmitted through the sample and detected to allow a spectral transmission curve for the sample to be displayed on a cathode ray display tube. The monochromator comprises a cathode ray tube 1 and an optical unit 5. The tube 1 has a phosphor screen 2 of short afterglow and broad ' emission spectrum. The electron beam scanning is controlled by deflection elements (3) Fig. 2 (not shown), which receive signals from deflection generator (21) so that a light spot scans repetitively down the screen 2 along the same vertical line. The optical unit 5 has a vertical entrance slit down which the light spot on the phosphor screen moves. The unit, Figs. 8, 9 (not shown), includes prisms (6, 37) and a concave mirror (35) to disperse and collimate the light, such that the light emerging from the exit slit 8 is at any one instant, monochromatic. The emerging light beam is split into two beams by element 14 and these pass through test 10 and reference samples 10,12 to respective photo-cells 18, 19. The intensity of light transmitted by the test sample is represented by the output of photo-cell 18 which is compared with the output of a logarithmic generator (24) Fig. 2 connected to the horizontal deflection generator of the display tube. Whenever these outputs are equal a pulse is transmitted through a summation unit (28) to the electron gun grid of the display tube to cause the production of a light spot on the screen. The vertical deflection of the picture tube is controlled by the same generator 21 which controls the tube 1. A curve is thus produced on the screen in which the horizontal co-ordinate is the transmitted intensity T and the vertical the wavelength A. The reference path photo-cell 19 produces an output which is fed to a regulator circuit. Fig. 10 (not shown)), to control the average intensity of the electron beam from the monochromator cathode ray tube 1 so that the intensity of monochromatic light from the exit slit is constant. . Evaluation of the curve shown on the picture tube is carried out by various controls on the tube monitor unit, Fig. 13 (not shown). By means of a further photo-cell 30 which can be located at any position along the axis of the entrance aperture 7 of the monochromator, Figs. 11, 12 (not shown), and receiving radiation from the light spot when it passes a movable horizontal marker line (Z) can be produced on the picture tube screen. The position of the photo-cell, controlled by a control (53) corresponds to a particular wavelength and as it is moved up or down the axis of aperture 7, the marker line on the screen moves and the wavelength it represents is indicated on digital display (55). Similarly, a transmissivity marker (W) is provided by the provision of a reference voltage generator whose output is compared with the logarithmic generator output to control the electron grid and produce a line indicating constant transmissivity for all wavelengths. The position of the vertical tranmissivity marker is varied by altering the reference voltage (using control 52) a digital display (56) indicating the percentage transmissivity. The extent of the wavelength scan of the monochromator can be varied by regulation of the deflection current to the tube coils (3) by altering an attenuator (22) Fig. 2.