PerkinElmer Frontier IR, User Manual

Page: 47 / 104

Using the Spectrometer with Spectrum . 47
Scanning samples
When you connect to your spectrometer the instrument settings will default to appropriate
values for your instrument type and accessory.
The configurable Scan toolbars at the top of the workspace include the tools you need to
collect a sample spectrum (Figure 15).
Figure 15 Frontier IR Dual-Range systems default scan toolbars
By default, the Measurement bar includes Scan , Halt , Background and Monitor buttons.
You can also select Scanalyze and then choose one of the scan and then process options
Scan and Compare , Scan and Search or Scan and Quant . All these commands can be
selected from the Measurement menu.
NOTE: The Scan toolbars are not displayed if you have chosen to work offline.
To scan a sample:
1. Check and set the instrument parameters.
Here you set the
Start and End points of the scan range (by default in wavenumbers,
but the abscissa units can also be set to nanometers or microns on the Setup
Instrument Basic tab) and the Accumulations required, either as a number of scans,
or as a length of time. You can enter a unique Sample ID and Description for the
sample.
If required, you can also change the wavelength range of the spectrometer using the
Mode drop-down list. See
Changing the instrument range
on page 48 for more
information on configuring your Frontier Dual-Range spectrometer for different
wavelength ranges.
2. If a background scan is required, the
Scan
button includes a small background flag.
Clear the instrument beampath, or insert a suitable background material, and then click
to collect a background spectrum.
The background spectrum is displayed briefly, and then the Viewing Area is prepared
for data collection from your sample.
We recommended that you run a background scan before every sample.
3. Place your sample in the instrument or accessory and then click to begin scanning
your sample.
By default, during scanning the sample data is displayed on the Live tab in the Viewing
Area.
The completed spectrum is displayed on the Graph tab, and added to the current
Samples View in the Data Explorer. The results of the Quality Checks, selected by
default on the Setup Instrument Advanced tab, are displayed in the results for the
spectrum. If you have the
Auto save
option selected on the Setup Instrument Data
Collection tab, your spectrum will be saved automatically.