What is the difference between monochromator and spectrometer?

The idea for the monochromator dates back to 1666, when Newton, studying a prism, discovered that the sun's rays were broken down into seven colors through the prism. In 1814 Fraunhofer designed an optical system consisting of slits, prisms and Windows and discovered absorption lines (Fraunhofer lines) in the solar spectrum. In 1860, Spectroscopy, a modern spectrograph designed by Kirchhoff and Bunsen for the study of metal spectra, was born. Since the prism spectrum is nonlinear, people begin to study grating spectrometers. Grating monochromator is an instrument for obtaining monochromatic light by grating diffraction. It can obtain monochromatic light from the source of the composite light (that is, the source of the mixed light of different wavelengths), obtain the light of a certain wavelength by a certain Angle of deflection of the grating, and can measure its value and intensity. Therefore, the spectral analysis of composite light source can be carried out.

The difference between monochromator and spectrometer:

In the modern instrument industry, there are four different types of instruments, they are spectrometer, monochromator, spectrograph, spectrophotometer. Many people do not understand the difference between these four instruments, so let me briefly introduce them to you.

• Monochromator and spectrometer are actually the same, but have different names according to the purpose of use.
• The spectrometer simply means that the light is separated by different wavelengths through the grating and other spectroscopic devices to form the light energy distribution divided by wavelength. Spectrometers are used for pure optical properties analysis. They only need to measure and output the relative spectral energy distribution of the measured source.
• The spectrograph only adds photosensitive film on the basis of the spectrum, which is convenient for obtaining the spectral image in real time. In the current situation of computer popularization, the image does not need to be printed in real time, so the spectrograph has no application prospect, but it still has a large market in geological exploration and other fields.
• A spectrophotometer is an instrument for measuring the intensity of a reflected or transmitted object by separating each discontinuous monochromatic light from a mixture containing various wavelengths. Because different objects have different molecular structures and their ability to absorb light at different wavelengths, each object has a specific absorption spectrum. It can be seen that a spectrophotometer is actually a system containing a spectrometer, and it is an application of spectral analysis, requiring measurement to show the absolute value of spectral photometric parameters of the measured source. In addition, spectrophotometers, which scan light at different wavelengths, are much slower than spectrometers.

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