Design, Adjustment, and Operation of an off-Axis Schmidt Spectrograph for Plasma Applications

摘要

A large aperture spectrograph designed for plasma research applications at the Aerospace Corporation is described. This instrument, which uses and off-axis Schmidt optical system, has a relative aperture of f/6 and a dispersion of 2 A/mm in the first order. Either photo graphic film or photomultiplier tubes may be used to record the spectra. The design and characteristics of the optical system are discussed, and a detailed description is given of the alignment and adjustment procedure which is somewhat different from that of conventional spectrographs. The operation of the instrument, which includes the use of the photographic camera, the photomultiplier readout head, and the setting of the plane gratings for various spectral ranges is described in sufficient detail so that this report can be used also as a laboratory manual. Several sample spectra which may be used as reference standards are shown. Finally, examples are given of applications for which the spectrograph has been used. (Author)