Redback RS40k User Manual

Echelle spectrometer

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RS40k Echelle Spectrometer

User Manual

Version 1.5 - July 7, 2023

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Summary of Contents for Redback RS40k

Page 1 RS40k Echelle Spectrometer User Manual Version 1.5 - July 7, 2023...
Page 2 © Redback Systems Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of Redback Systems. Thorlabs is a registered trademark of Thorlabs Inc in the United States and/or other countries.
Page 3: Table Of Contents
6.4.4 Regions of interest (ROIs) 6.4.5 Dark Screen 6.4.6 Periodic Acquire 6.4.7 Dark Calibration 6.4.8 Flat-Field Calibration 6.5 Python API 6.6 Troubleshooting 6.6.1 Wavelength offset correction 6.5.1 High detector humidity warning 7. Device properties 7.1 Optical Parameters © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 5: Introduction
1. Introduction Thank you for purchasing a Redback Systems product. This manual provides you with directions on the device installation and operation as well as a brief introduction to the RedSolve software. Please read the following instructions carefully. NOTE: Please read this manual carefully before installing and operating your new RS40k spectrometer.
Page 6: Warnings
● Care should be taken such that the camera does not overheat. The camera’s air vents must not be blocked. ● Your Redback Systems spectrometer does not contain a shutter. Please avoid illuminating the detector with high-power lasers. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd...
Page 7: Safety Precautions
● Only use the electrical cables provided. ● Avoid static electricity. 4.2 Fibre Installation ● Take care when installing the optical ﬁbre. ● Only use FC/PC ﬁbre connectors as speciﬁed in Section 5.3 of this manual. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 8: Installation
Please inspect the device mechanically and unpack the contents in a clean, dry, and EDS-free area. Verify that you have received the following items with the package: ● RS40k spectrometer in Pelican 1520 storage case ● 12V/5A power supply and cable ●...
Page 9: Spectrometer Interfaces
5.2 Spectrometer Interfaces NOTE: Do not connect the RS40k echelle spectrometer to any PC prior to installing the software application and device drivers. Please use the included USB 3.0 cable to connect the detector with your PC or laptop. The spectrometer interfaces are shown in Figure 1. The device has four mounting slots which are machined into the aluminium housing.
Page 10: Optical Fibre
Butt coupling FC/APC ﬁbres to FC/PC ﬁbres may result in light loss of up to 50%. We recommend using hybrid patch cables with FC/PC and FC/APC connectors if your experiment is based on APC ﬁbres. Your RS40k package includes a set of hybrid patch cables (Thorlabs S405-XP and Thorlabs 780HP) which cover the 420-950 nm range.
Page 11: Cleaning Optical Fibre Connectors
ﬁbre tip. Figure 3 shows a successfully cleaned ﬁbre surface for reference (see right image). Figure 3: Microscope images of a dirty (left) and clean (right) ﬁbre end. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 12: Software
6.1.1 Check your software version You can check what version of the RedSolve software you have installed, under the Options ﬁle menu click About (Figure 4). Figure 4: The About dialog is accessible from the Help menu. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 13: Software Installation
5. Download and run the latest RedSolve Setup [version].exe ﬁle from our website and follow the prompts presented by the install wizard. 6. After successfully installing the software, connect the RS40k spectrometer to your computer via the provided USB 3.0 cable.
Page 14: Wavelength Calibration
ﬁle. You must click OK or Apply in the settings window to activate the calibration ﬁle. The Settings dialog can also be accessed from the Options menu. Figure 7: Load your calibration ﬁle from the USB drive into RedSolve. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 15: User Interface
5. Regions of Interest (ROIs). A region of interest (ROI) can be created to inspect a subset of the collected data. Multiple ROI panels can be created. Detector temperature and relative humidity (for cooled detectors only). © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 16: Toolbar Actions
Subtract the current dark frame from the measured data. Can be toggled on and off as desired without reacquiring data. Show Flattened Apply the ﬂat-ﬁelding compensation for the echelle blaze angle modulation. Useful when visualising broader spectral features. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 17: Spectrum Acquisition
6.4.2 Spectrum Acquisition The detector chip provided in your Redback Systems spectrometer may have higher sensitivity than other comparable spectrometers. For this reason, to avoid saturation of the detector we recommend starting your measurements with shorter exposure times, and incrementing the exposure time as required. The dashed line in the overview plot shows the maximum intensity before saturation.
Page 18: Regions Of Interest (Rois)
Selecting the Dark screen option from the View menu changes the background colour from light to dark for low-light experiments. Icons and toolbar buttons are not affected by the dark screen mode (Figure 10). Figure 10: RedSolve dark screen mode. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 19: Periodic Acquire
Figure 11 shows the Periodic Acquire menu. When the Auto-refresh button is engaged the measurement will run with the input Interval and Repeats parameters. Setting Repeats to “0” will continue the measurement series indeﬁnitely. Toggling Save on ↻ will save the acquired data after each acquisition. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 20: Dark Calibration
CMOS detector. The RS40k has a Peltier-cooled scientiﬁc CMOS sensor to minimise this effect. The cooler is activated in the device software RedSolve. The lowest temperature that can be reached is 40°C below ambient.
Page 21 After the dark frame has been set, the Subtract Dark toolbar button can be toggled to automatically remove the dark signal from any recorded spectra (Figure 14). NOTE: You must repeat steps 1-3 whenever you change the exposure time. Figure 14: Subtract Dark icon activated. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 22: Flat-Field Calibration
Flat-ﬁeld calibration helps to compensate for these non-uniformities by normalising the response of the device across the entire wavelength range. A complete data set acquired with the RS40k spectrometer includes a science frame with real data, a ﬂat-ﬁeld (i.e. white-light) frame, and a dark frame.
Page 23: Python Api
6.5 Python API It’s your hardware, control it how you like. Our Python-based API makes it easy to automate measurements and seamlessly integrate spectroscopy into your workﬂow. Capture the data in line with post-processing and analysis. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 24: Troubleshooting
6.6.1 Wavelength offset correction Your RS40k wavelength calibration is factory set. Please handle the spectrometer with care as it is a precision instrument. If you believe the RS40k requires recalibration, please contact us (see Section 8). © Redback Systems Pty Ltd...
Page 25: High Detector Humidity Warning
6.5.1 High detector humidity warning The sCMOS detector used in the RS40k spectrometer has an O-ring sealed chamber which is back-ﬁlled with argon gas to create an inert atmosphere. The O-ring seal may leak over time and water vapour is able to diffuse into the chamber. If the internal humidity is too high condensation can form on the detector cover glass when the detector is cooled below the dew point.
Page 26 NOTE: The desiccant container is shipped with orange colored silica gel. The orange gel will turn green if the moisture content is above a certain percentage. You can either bake the container or reﬁll with any dry silica gel. © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 27: Device Properties
Wavelength range limited to SMF bandwidth (see Section 5.3). 7.2 Device Parameters Weight 8.3 kg (18.1 lbs) Temperature operating range 15-35°C Humidity operating range 0-70% non-condensing Power supply 12V, 5A Computer interface USB 3.0 (USB 2.0 compatible) © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...
Page 29 Reach out to us via the details below. RedSolve software creates log ﬁles in the user appdata directory, which can be included in with your enquiry. Redback Systems Technical Support E-Mail: support@redback.systems © Redback Systems Pty Ltd v1.5...