Abstract
A lens-based Raman spectrometer is characterized by studying the optical elements in the optical path and we study the measure of aberration–diffraction effects. This is achieved by measuring the spectral resolution (SR) thus encompassing almost all optical elements of a spectrometer that are mostly responsible for such effects. An equation for SR is used to determine the quality factor
Keywords
Introduction
Raman spectroscopy is one of the most powerful techniques in identifying chemical compositions of a sample through designated peak positions also known as the chemical signature/fingerprint of a material. 1 Apart from material identification, typical Raman spectra contain rich information about specific properties such as crystallinity, doping, stresses, etc. For example, the width of a peak may indicate the crystallinity of a material,2,3 intensity and intensity ratios determine the concentration (per unit area exposed to the laser) and relative quantities of materials present, 4 a peak shift from its signature position may determine whether the material is stressed/strained,5–9 doped,10–13 or in an excited state, e.g., at elevated temperature.13–16 However, not always are these cases prevalent and often there are peak shifts or broadened peaks irrespective of their origin, and generally such details are ignored as long as they do not fit the aim of the experiment. If the shift of the peak of interest is within the permissible limits of the spectral resolution (SR), then it is critical to commemorate the origin of the shift to the factors concerning the strain, doping, crystallinity, temperatures, etc. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to study the spectrometer properties before concluding any critical analysis of any material under investigation.
A good spectrometer design (SD) for Raman instruments in general, and Raman microscopes in particular, can solve the problem and the SD is one of the most important factors in assessing the quality of a spectrometer or measurement. The basis of good SD in a Raman instrument (or spectrometer) lies in the effectiveness of the optical elements in the optical path to form an image of the entrance slit at the exit plane with the wavelengths involved in the excitation source. This can be seen in its optimum signal-to-noise ratio and in the spectral resolution of the measured Raman spectra, in the depth resolution of the microscope, etc. The elements on which the aforesaid qualities of spectrometer depend are the excitation source, objective (magnification/numerical aperture), grating groove density, slit width/pinhole size, focal length, system magnification, pixels of the charge-coupled device (CCD), and other aberration/diffraction effects occurring due to optical elements in the setup like lenses and mirrors. For a good spectrometer, an optimum combination of all the aforementioned factors and their interaction must be considered and optimized.
However, the challenge to deal and consecutively compensate for aberrations/diffractions is persistent. In some of the commercial Raman microscopes, the optical path usually is handled with mechanical interfaces such as beam steering motors, motors for grating rotation, lens adjustments, slit opening, beam splitters, mirrors, etc
This leads to discrepancies in the experimental data, which must be tracked and investigated to maintain the optimal quality of the spectrometer. These discrepancies can be eliminated if the optical path is thoroughly calibrated each time, which can be a challenge for commercial spectrometers. An optical beam is very sensitive to any changes of optical elements in the beam path. These changes can lead to spherical, chromatic aberrations, diffractions, beam deflections, reflections, etc. Therefore, the elimination of such effects is an important challenge in optical spectroscopy. A typical SD used in a Raman instrument is an uncrossed Czerny–Turner configuration, consisting of two concave mirrors and one planar diffraction grating and has proved to be the most suitable configuration for Raman spectrometer.17–21
It is important to study the Raman spectrometer without manipulating the elements in the optical path. To study every element in the optical path is time consuming and is a challenge by itself. In this work, we describe how the quality of a spectrometer can be studied in detail in a commercial Raman microscope comprising all elements in an optical path. This work has been inspired by the previous work of Liu and Berg 21 where they analyzed an uncrossed Czerny–Turner spectrometer by measuring its SR. Further, they determined the aberration/diffraction correction factor for their setup. 21 Conducting the described procedure over a certain period will help to maintain the quality of a setup and, in case of problems, to be able to identify their origin and solve them accordingly.
Mathematical Background
Studying the SR of the spectrometer will include a major portion of the elements in a Raman instrument such as the grating groove density, focal length, lenses/mirrors, CCD pixels, and pixel size.
Spectral Resolution
To determine the SR with the available options, Liu and Berg
21
combined all the factors that influence SR into one expression, the derivation of this equation is explained in detail in previous studies.20,21 The advantage of this equation is that it shows the dependence of SR under different optical configurations. The factors affecting SR can be summarized in Eq. 1:
When
Here, Q, the so-called quality factor is approximated as a constant for a spectrometer with a specific design. 21 It is calculated by best fitting the experimental results to the theoretically derived values using Eq. 1. The resulting curve for SR as a function of pinhole/slit width is a hyperbolic curve which will be discussed later in the results section.
Liu and Berg
21
used an uncrossed Czerny–Turner monochromator (Renishaw) where they compared spectral resolutions of two different lasers and different gratings and measured the correction factor of their setup.
21
They have attributed “quality factor
Materials and Methods
A single crystalline diamond was used as a sample with a characteristic Raman peak at 1332.4 cm−1 and a true Raman FWHM of 1.2 cm−1.
22
For atomic emission spectra, a calibration neon lamp from Kaiser Electronics was used. A commercial Raman microscope from WITec (Alpha300 RAandS) was used and a detailed optical path is sketched in Fig. 1. Raman spectra were obtained using an air objective (Carl Zeiss; EC Epiplan-Neofluar DIC M27, 100×, NA = 0.90). This system is equipped with a lens-based UHTS 300 spectrometer connected using a multimode optical fiber and thermoelectric cooled CCD and electron multiplying CCD (EMCCD, Andor DU970N-BV). The CCD and EMCCD is a back-illuminated CCD with 1600 × 200 pixels and each pixel is 16 µm × 16 µm. The used multimode fibers had different diameters that transported the scattered signal to the spectrometer. Thus, the diameter of these fibers determines the size of the pinhole. They were 10 µm, 25 µm, 50 µm, and 100 µm all with a NA = 0.12. For excitation, a diode laser (532 nm) with a nominal output power of 40 mW, a helium–neon laser (633 nm) with an output power of 25 mW, and a helium–cadmium laser (442 nm) with an output power of 25 mW were used. Data processing was done using Control Project Plus 5.0 software provided by WITec and all experiments were carried out at ambient conditions. Schematic of the optical path of WITec alpha 300RAandS. Left: Beam path of the confocal Raman microscope. Right: Beam path inside the spectrometer.
Results and Discussion
Equation 1 shows that SR (
We first studied the case where ω
Figures 2a and 2c show the emission line of the neon lamp at 640.2 nm depending on available pinhole widths for both the gratings. At smaller pinhole widths (10 µm, 25 µm) the emission line is sharper compared to the emission lines at larger widths (50 µm, 100 µm). This can be explained by the fact that with larger pinhole diameters the point source becomes broader resulting in a broadened line width. It can be observed that there is a gradual shift observed in the emission line position starting from pinhole width 100 µm to 10 µm. Although the line under investigation has a very narrow linewidth, it is significantly broadened when measured with 100 µm pinhole width (broad top-hat function). The emission lines positions observed in the Figs. 2a and 2c range from 640.17 nm to 640.2 nm. If calculated, the Raman shift would be Δω (a) Neon lamp spectra at 640.2 nm measured with different pinhole widths and a grating of 600 lines/mm, (b) experimentally measured and theoretically calculated FWHM plotted as a function of pinhole width and a grating of 600 lines/mm using Eq. 1, (c) neon lamp spectra measured with different pinhole widths and a grating of 1800 lines/mm, and (d) experimentally measured and theoretically calculated FWHM plotted as a function of pinhole width and a grating of 1800 lines/mm using Eq. 1.
For both gratings, experimentally measured data fit very well to the theoretically calculated values and deviates only for the smallest pinhole widths (10 µm). This disagreement is because of two reasons: first, at smaller pinhole widths the effects of aberration/diffraction become more prominent, and second, the width of the CCD pixels yielding an artificial broadening. For samples containing almost single frequencies (in this case a neon lamp), the constituent dispersion does not cause as many aberration/diffraction effects. Thus, this disagreement can arise due to the width of the CCD pixels and this agrees with previously published literature for smaller slit widths. 21
To interpret these results, it is important to better understand Different values of Q simulated to the experimentally measured results from Fig. 2.
Figure 3 shows the various values of
Now, in the case of ω (a) Diamond spectra measured with 600 lines/mm grating with three excitation wavelengths, (b) measured FWHM of diamond spectra at 1332.4 cm−1 for 600 lines/mm measured with pinhole widths 10 µm, 25 µm, 50 µm, and 100 µm and different excitation wavelengths 442 nm (blue symbols), 532 nm (green symbols), and 633 nm (red symbols compared to theoretical calculations as per Eq. 1; black dashed lines), (c) diamond spectra measured with 1800 lines/mm grating with three excitation wavelengths, and (d) measured FWHM of diamond spectra at 1332.4 cm−1 for 1800 lines/mm measured with pinhole widths 10 µm, 25 µm, 50 µm, and 100 µm and different excitation wavelengths 442 nm (blue symbols), 532 nm (green symbols), and 633 nm (red symbols) compared to theoretical calculations per Eq. 1 (black dashed lines).
Figures 4a and 4c show the spectra of a diamond measured at different pinhole widths for both the gratings and three excitation sources. The spectra do not have a typical Voigt line shape due to the limitation in the CCD pixel width as discussed earlier. However, it can be seen that the SR improves with larger wavelengths. It can also be observed that with different wavelengths of excitation, the peak position of the diamond (at 1332.4 cm−1) also shifts. However, this peak position shift does not affect our results later and hence can be ignored but must be considered where wavenumber accuracy plays a role. Figure 4b shows the results of the experiment with a 600 l/mm grating for three different values of ω
As a consequence, there is almost no deviation between the experimental value and the theoretical fit as can be seen in Figs. 4b and 4d for a pinhole width of 10 µm. The
According to Eq. 1, SR is inversely proportional to ω
The value of
The value of
Our results differ slightly from the previously published literature by Liu and Berg
Spectral resolution as per Eq. 1 should also depend on the pixel density of the CCD camera and this can also change with the readout mode of the CCD camera. Experiments were performed keeping this in mind and changing the binning of the CCD camera resulting in no change in the SR. This is because the multimode fiber and its core diameter act as the entrance aperture of the spectrometer, eliminating the necessity of an additional slit system at the exit of the spectrograph. An additional slit system would cause the dispersed light to fall only on certain defined pixels of the CCD which might affect SR. In our case, the dispersed light covers the entire CCD chip thus the effect of SR only depends on the core diameter size of the multimode fiber.
Conclusion
The spectral resolution (SR) of a lens-based Raman spectrometer (WITec alpha300 RAandS) is influenced by instrument-specific, experiment-specific, and sample-specific parameters. To determine the SR, two cases were considered from Eq. 1, first ω
For the second case (
Determining the quality factor
Supplemental Material
sj-pdf-1-asp-10.1177_00037028211055148 - Supplemental material for Determination and Monitoring of Quality Parameters: A Detailed Study of Optical Elements of a Lens-Based Raman Spectrometer
Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-asp-10.1177_00037028211055148 for Determination and Monitoring of Quality Parameters: A Detailed Study of Optical Elements of a Lens-Based Raman Spectrometer by Ashutosh Mukherjee, Anita Lorenz, Marc Brecht in Applied Spectroscopy
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank WITec GmbH (Ulm, Germany) for their kind support and fruitful discussions.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and publication of this article: The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support within the framework IngenieurNachwuchs 2016 (project: CompeTERS) by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; Grant no.: 13FH596IX6).
Supplemental Material
All supplemental material mentioned in the text is available in the online version of the journal.
References
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