1. Spectrometers: definitions and types

In atomic spectrometry, the dispersive system is a spectrometer, i.e. a spectral instrument that spatially disperses light emitted by a radiation source, isolates one or more specific spectral bands (or windows) containing analyte lines, or regions containing the spectral background, and measures the intensity of the lines and the spectral background using one or more detectors.

A spectrograph differs from a spectrometer in that the entire spectral range allowed by the system is recorded on a photographic plate or film. When using spectrographs, qualitative analysis is obtained by checking for the presence of several lines of the element concerned, while quantitative analysis is carried out by measuring the intensity of the lines with a densitometer. Historically, spectroscopes were used for visual observation of spectra.

Spectrometers fall...