Raman Spectroscopy Diagnostic Tools

The Performance Monitor is used to monitor the Raman instrument operational parameters to verify that the instrument is working properly.

The previous 10 days of Instrument Temperature and Toluene M-Distance data are displayed by default. Different date intervals and instrument operational parameters (spectrograph temperature, camera temperature, etc.) can be selected. The different tabs at the top of the Performance Monitor Window are for each different channel. All temperatures and laser parameters will be the same for all tabs, only the Min/Max Counts and Max M-Distance are channel-specific. The Min/Max Counts and the Max M-Distance values are stored for each gathered spectrum while in autosampler mode or CHM mode. The left-hand y-axis displays the temperature scale. The right-hand y-axis displays other scales as needed, depending on the selected dataset.

The state of several instrument parameters are checked periodically, and an entry logging the state of ALL the parameters is written to the Performance database whenever any parameter makes a significant change. The criteria for a significant change is user-defined for each parameter. The user defines a threshold percent change for each parameter. If the value of the parameter changes by more than the defined threshold, an entry is written to the database.