Modular spectroscopy makes possible thousands of applications by allowing users to combine optical bench components and accessories in various ways. Interchangeable slits in Ocean Insight spectrometers add more flexibility.
Spectrometer slit size is one factor that determines the optical resolution of your spectral system, along with the dispersion of the diffraction grating and the number of detector pixels. Choosing a slit size involves trade-offs: Select a larger slit width to increase throughput, but at the expense of optical resolution. Or select a smaller slit for higher optical resolution, but decrease throughput. The optimum choice of slit size requires weighing those two consequences, and depends heavily on the application.
Interchangeable Spectrometer Slits
The interchangeable slit design of most Ocean Insight spectrometers helps to eliminate design trade-offs, providing users with greater experiment flexibility. For example, you can specify a narrow slit for high resolution in sharp-peak absorbance measurements, but then switch to a wider slit for high throughput in fluorescence and low-light measurements.
This is a major advance from earlier generations of modular spectrometers, which required slit assemblies to be replaced by the manufacturer. For applications where managing a precise balance between throughput and optical resolution was essential, having to return the spectrometer for adjustment was inconvenient at best. Interchangeable slits eliminate those hassles.