A new, versatile echelle spectrometer relevant to laser induced plasma applications

Laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) has received increasing interest in recent times. One drawback of this technique is the fact that conventional Czerny-Turner spectrographs in combination with CCD cameras are very limited either in terms of spectral resolution or in terms of simultaneously detectable spectral range. An echelle charge coupled device (CCD) system, allowing the simultaneous detection from 220 to 400 mn with a resolution lambda/Delta lambda = 15 000 (4 pixels) has therefore been developed. The peculiarity is, that this echelle spectrometer, herewith referred to as EcLIPS, is a stand-alone spectrometer. That means, it can be combined with a multitude of intensified and non-intensified CCD cameras, which are the standard detectors in most spectroscopic laboratories nowadays. The modular construction of the spectrometer allows to adapt the instrument for any chosen wavelength region from vacuum UV to near IR by simply changing the grating and the prism. The novel optical design of this instrument is presented in this paper and its merits are discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.