Horiba Scientific Quanta-phi F-3029, Operation Manual

Page: 87 / 98

Quanta-
φ
rev. C (23 Apr 2010) Troubleshooting
6-3
Possible contamination of inner
sphere Internal contamination voids the
sphere warranty.
The sphere inte-
rior may need to be replaced be-
cause the porous Spectralon
®
is
very difficult to decontaminate.
CCD signal > 65 000
counts per accumula-
tion cycle for a blank
excitation signal (> 10
6
cps).
Excessive count rate (CPS) or inte-
gration time CCD count-rate for the blank exci-
tation band should be adjusted to
between 500 000 and 1 million
counts per second (i.e., 50 000
counts between 0.05 and 0.1 s).
Bandpass too wide Bandpass should be set for com-
plete resolution of the spectral fea-
tures of the excitation bands and
fluorescence signal areas. Usually
from 1 to 5 nm is sufficient.
Insufficient neutral-density attenua-
tion Use neutral attenuation on excita-
tion side if the suggested count rate
(500 000–1 000 000 cps) is ex-
ceeded when the bandpass is be-
tween 1 and 5 nm.
PMT signal > 1 million
cps (rate) for blank
excitation signal Insufficient neutral-density attenua-
tion Neutral attenuation should be used
on excitation if the suggested count
rate (500 000–1 000 000 cps) is
exceeded when the bandpass is be-
tween 1 and 5 nm.
Bandpass is too wide Bandpass should be set for com-
plete resolution of the spectral fea-
tures of the excitation bands and
fluorescence signal areas. Usually
from 1 to 5 nm is sufficient.