Niranalyzer

Spectroscopy is a technique that uses the interaction of energy with a sample to perform an analysis. Spectroscopy pertains to the dispersion of an object’s light into its component colors (i.e. energies). The data that is obtained from spectroscopy is called a spectrum. A spectrum is a plot of the intensity of energy detected versus the wavelength (or mass or momentum or frequency, etc.) of the energy.

A spectrum can be used to obtain information about atomic and molecular energy levels, molecular geometries, chemical bonds, interactions of molecules, and related processes. Often, spectra are used to identify the components of a sample (qualitative analysis). Spectra may also be used to measure the amount of material in a sample (quantitative analysis).

There are several instruments that are used to perform a spectroscopic analysis. In simplest terms, spectroscopy requires an energy source and a device for measuring the change in the energy source after it has interacted with the sample (a spectrophotometer or interferometer).