Development of a high-speed time-resolved spectroscope and its application to analysis of time-varying optical spectra

The authors have developed a spectroscopic measuring system that is controlled by a microcomputer to analyze a time-varying optical spectrum. A charge-coupled-device (CCD) linear image sensor, which has 128 pixels is used as an optical detector, so that the optical spectrum can be measured quickly in a parallel way. The spectrum to be measured ranges from about 350 to 700 nm in wavelength. All data are digitized and transferred to a microcomputer for storage on a floppy disk, and they can be processed for display in various forms. This system has been applied to the spectrum analysis of light emitted due to a contact arc discharge.