Ocean Optics Flame-S, User Manual

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3: Operation
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
Boxcar – Boxcar is a form of averaging across pixels. It applies a rolling average to
multiple adjacent pixels to help smooth the spectral response and reduce the impact of
noise.
 Electric Dark Correction (on/off) – There are pixels on the detector that are kept
deliberately dark. Dark correction subtracts the signal from these dark pixels to reduce
the impact of thermal noise, which produces a baseline signal from the detector.
 Non Linearity Correction (on/off) – Detectors do not have a completely linear
response. As they approach saturation, typically their efficiency reduces.

Stray Light Correction – An advanced user option that allows you to set a 1 or 2-term
polynomial correction for stray light correction.
 Trigger Modes – Sets triggering mode. For more information on triggering see External
Triggering .
 Strobe/ Lamp (on/off) – Use this function to turn an attached light source on or off.
 GPIO Controls – Can be used to control compatible accessories or custom hardware.
Can be set to three states, on, off and alternate.
Controls that appear in this window depend on the spectrometer model. You can add and
remove acquisition controls from this window.
Quick View and Device Response
In Quick View mode (formerly Scope mode ) the spectra that are displayed have an arbitrary
y-axis given in counts. This is the raw signal from the detector and is proportional to the
voltage induced by the light falling on the detector.
It is very important to realize that this is uncalibrated data and that a counts signal
does not represent a particular power or energy from one wavelength to the next.
Because the response of the detector is linear, twice the counts at a particular
wavelength do indicate that the amount of light at that wavelength has “doubled”
(relative to another wavelength). However, a small peak relative to a big peak does not
indicate that there is less or more light at a particular wavelength relative to another in
absolute terms. To understand the true relationship you need to do a relative
measurement (including relative irradiance), or if you want a quantified result, an
absolute irradiance measurement.
The relative efficiency of converting light to detector signal varies significantly across the range
of a spectrometer. Many things impact this including the responsiveness of the detector
(quantum efficiency) and the efficiency of optical components. Each configuration of a spectral
device has a unique response curve, referred to as the instrument response.
Continuous and Single Acquisitions
There are two sets of controls for taking or pausing acquisitions. The set on the Acquisition
group window allows you to control each device individually. The set on the top bar is a global
control that will allow you to start and pause all devices currently attached.