Ocean Optics IDRaman mini Install - Manual (Page 26)

2: Set-up and Operation
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Acquiring an Average
Averaging is used when your sample has a high background. Often samples will produce some or even
large amounts of fluorescence. The quality of a spectrum is determined by the signal-to-noise. The noise
is determined by “shot noise” which is equal to the square root of signal. This means that samples with
large backgrounds will inherently have poor signal-to-noise ratios. Increasing the integration time will
improve the signal-to-noise ratio, but with high background samples this may be impossible due to the
detector’s limited dynamic range.
Averaging allows one to take multiple short acquisitions and average them to improve signal to noise.
Until the detector becomes dark noise limited the signal to noise ratio will improve by the square root of
the number of averages.
Button Function
Average Acquires multiple spectra which will be averaged. When the average button is
selected the # of averages control box appears. Select the number of averages and
begin the averages by depressing the average button again.
NOTE: Average will acquire a full set of averaged references before it begins
acquiring spectra.
Peak Clean
TM
Peak Clean is a beta correction algorithm to produce spectra that are baselined corrected with powerful
de-trending algorithms. This method is not appropriate for every sample, but when spectral backgrounds
are a problem it can provide background free spectra. Peak Clean can be particularly useful for library
matching.