August 1, 2024

Uranyl Fluorescence Spectra

The idea here is to use spectroscopy to identify fluorescent mineral species via the spectrum of the light they emit when excited by UV light.

Paul Adams and Storm Sears are busy working on this in August of 2024. Paul began some work several years ago using a point and shoot camera in conjunction with a diffraction grating. Recently these two identified an affordable precision spectrometer and are pushing forward on this project.

Note that "Thunder Optics" would seem to be in France based on the internet domain. Along with the spectrometer itself, you need a fiber ($50) and lens ($100), so the outlay to get started with this is $600.

They advertise a 350 to 890 nm range of wavelengths and a 1800-1200 pixel detector The device is interfaced with a USB 2.0 cable and you get a license for "Spectragryph" for personal use.

It is a Windows only, closed source product. They mention using "Wine" to run it on Linux.

Illumination

Controlling the intensity of the UV illumination is important (critical) otherwise the detector in the spectrometer can be saturated.
Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Mineralogy Info / tom@mmto.org