Laboratory No.

4 Spectroroscopy
Dana Carroll Lab Partner: David Jaeger October 5, 2012
Abstract This experiment provides a basic understanding of spectroscopy and how to evaluate a substance based in its emission or absorption spectrum through the use of spectroscopy. Angular position versus potential are colleceted via LoggerPro in combination with a high sensitivity light sensor and light source. The resulting graph shows the spectrum of the substance. The sodium lamp is used as a calibration technique to get the grating spacing, d. This calculation shows that the wavelength of the source 1644.4nm0.01nm which has a percent dierence of only 1.33% from the accepted value of wavelength for the source (1666nm, from the manufacturer). The mercury light source shows three dierent wavelengths in it sppectrum that correspond to three dierent colors: blue, green and yellow. The calculated wavelengths are 4112.72nm for blue, 536.72 for green, and 832.37 for yellow, with corresponding percent dierences of 5.68%, 1.73%, and 36.24%. The errors for the rst two wavelengths are small enough to be ignored while the yellow wavelegth runs a little too high. Upon observing the spectrum of dierent food coloring colors illuminated by an incandescent light source, it is found that a homogeneous mixture of two colors will impose a dip in the spectrum that corresponds to each of the colors that have been mixed in the solution individually.

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1.1

Objectives
Bright Line Spectrum (Emission)

The purpose of this part of the experiment is to determine the wavelengths of the colors in the spectrum of a mercury vapor light.

1.2

Dark Line Spectrum (Absorption)

The purpose of this part of the experiment is to determine the wavelength of the colors absorbed by the colored liquid samples. 1

Theory

An emission or bright line spectrum is formed when light produced by the electric discharge of a rareed gas in a single element . This element being examined contains a limited number of wavelengths specic to the element of the substance. The spectrum appears in the form of a bright line because as the light passes through the narrow slit, it is separated into dierent wavelengths, forming a unique pattern of colors, characteristic to the particular element.

Figure 1: Ray Diagram for First Order Diraction The image above in gure 1 represents a ray diagram for rst order diraction, where the pathlength for Ray A is known to be one wavelength longer than the path of Ray B. In reference to the original path, the diracted light passes through the grating at all angles. The diracted light from the adjacent lines must eectively interfere in phase so that the image from the light source can be formed.The relationship between the wavelength, the line spacing, and the diraction angle is given by the following equation: = dsin(1) where is wavelength, the grating line spacin is d and the diraction angle is . The study of spectroscopy is important because it enables scientists to

identify the elements in a substance due to its unique spectrum. The light spectrum of a substance is analogous to ngerprints, every substance has a spectrum that sets it apart from all others.

Equipment
Spectrophotometer Base Grating Mount Focusing Lens Collimating Slits Rod Stand Mounting Brackets (2) Degree Plate with Light Sensor Arm Grating ( 600 lines per mm) Collimating Lens Cuvettes (2) Basic Optics System OS-8515 Aperture Bracket OS-8534 High Sensitivity Light Sensor CI-6604 Rotary Motion Sensor CI-6538 Optics Bench Mercury Light Source OS-9286A Sodium Light Source Diuse White Light source Colored Liquid Samples Black Electrical Adapter Box Vernier LabPro Bread Board (Power Supply) USB Drive

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4.1

Data Analysis and Results

Emission Lines

The sodium light source is used to calibrate the grating. The grating spacing (theoretical) of the sodium light is calculated according to equation (1) and using the fact that the sodium light has an average wavelength of 589.3nm, the result is 1644.40.1nm, while the theoretical spacing of the grating is 1666nm, with a percent dierence of 1.33%. The spectrum of mercury has more colors only visible at a gain setting of 10. The angle is found from the graph by means of dividing by 58.77 and multiplying by 360. This angle is then divided by 2 and multiplied by d to nd the wavelength, . The percent dierences are computed between the calculated and theoretical values for wavelength.

Figure 2: Emission Spectrum for Sodium. Potential vs. Anguar Position: from the graph wavelength can be calculated using the angles of the rst and second order spectral lines. Figure 2 shows the spectrum for sodium and provides the data for analysis. As shown, the pink colored line on the graph corresponds to the 10 gain setting. The lines for gain 1 and 100 are not ideal for collecting the data for . Figure 3 shows the spectrum of mercury and provides the data for analysis. As shown, the yellow colored line has the most discernable peaks and corresponds to the 100 gain setting. The lines for a gain of 1 and 10 are relatively at where the peaks in the spectrum are not distinguishable. Note that the 4

Figure 3: Emission Spectrum for Mercury. Potential vs. Anguar Position: from the graph wavelength can be calculated using the angles of the rst and second order spectral lines. higher gain setting is most useful for the experiment because it allows for more detail in the peaks of the spectrum. The numerical data collected and calculated for mercury is recorded in the table below. Color Blue Green Yellow Calculated 411.72nm 536.72 832.37 Theoretical 435.8nm 546.1nm 577.0nm Percent Dierence 5.68% 1.73% 36.24%

Table 1: Wavlength of Mercury Spectrum

These wavelengths are calculated using the same method described above for the sodium spectrum, except for mercury there is more than just one distinct wavelength. The error is highest for the yellow part of the spectrum and lowest for the blue wavelengths. Recall the sodium light source was used to calibrate the grating spacing. It only has one distinct wavelength while mercury has 3 that are distinguishable. This implies that the sodium is the most accurate light source (more than mercury).

4.2

Absorption Lines

A incandescent bulb in the form of a lamp is used as the light source coupled with a cuvette of food coloring to make observations of the absorption or dark line spectrums. The graph in gure 4 shows the spectrum of four dierent cuvette settings: the blue line represents the empty cuvette, the pink line represents the red coloring lled cuvette, the yellow line represents the blue coloring lled cuvette and the turquoise line represents the comination of red and blue coloring in the cuvette. The gain gain setting appears to be a little o, where a dierent gain setting should have been used as the spectrum appears to be washed out, or the gain is too high. All of the peaks and drop-os are very similar and it is dicult to discern any dierences in the location in which the wavlengths are absorbed. Ideally, there should be peaks on each side of the zeroth order peak. However, it is obvious that all of the variations show the same general shape of the spectrum. For the red and blue mixture, the result corresponds to the

Figure 4: Absorption Spectrum: Potential vs. Anguar Position for for the empty, red, blue and red and blue mixtures. fact that the sample must have been fully mixed because the spectrum shows a dip in the middle of the plain red and plain blue sample peak. This shows this sample must be a homogeneous mixture, otherwise, the spectrum would contain the dips of all three wavelengths: yellow, blue and green. The middle dip occurs at 67.32 degrees. The peak of the red coloring sample is at 67.9 degrees and the blue coloring sample occurs at a similar 68.17 degrees. Therefore, it makes sense 6

that dip occurs where it does for the mixed sample. The empty cuvette has a very similar spectrum to the blue cuvette. For the plainor pure food coloring samples, the wavelength can be calculated through the use of equation (1). This means that without even knowing the sample color, it would be possible to nd out using the locations of the rst order peaks.

4.3

Numerical Error Analysis

The main source of error in this experiment is calibration. When the sample sensor is moved as steadily as possible through the reciever, which sends the data to the computer, the angular velocity is not as steady as it should be for perfect conditions, making a dierence in the accuracy of the numbers collected (i.e angles). The ratio of radii is described by the following equation: R = angle 2 and where one rotation is 360 degrees and the error is 0.009 such
.009) that the error in the ratio is R = 02 + (02 so that R = 0.001. The 2 error in angular position can be propogated through the following: angle and = 180 R .001 R = = 02 + 0 + R 58.74 5 = 1.74 10 radians where p represents angular position. The error in the grating spacing is m d = sin ( ) and upon taking the derivative, ( ) where d = 1.64 106 , = 5.89 107 and m=1, such that d = dmcos sin2 d = 0.01nm. The error in wavelength is: 2 = d d + dcos . Upon plugging in the above calculated values, it is found that = 1.75 105 nm, showing that the error in wavelength is extremely small. 2 2 2 2

Conclusions

The results of the experiment are the calculated wavelengths of mercury for the three dierent colors in the spectrum (emission), while the sodium lamp is used as a calibration technique, due to the fact that its spectrum contains only one wavelength. The calibration techniques limit the accuracy of the experiment. The absorption spectrum is studied through the use of dierent food coloring samples in a cuvette, where it is noted that when two of the samples are mixed homogeneously, the result is a dip halfway through its spectrum, corresponding to the orginal pure colors in the mixture. This experiment makes use of a fundamental equation in optics to study the spectrum of substances under varying conditions.

References

1. PASCO Lab Manual. Lab 4: Spectroscopy. My.t.edu/ mzhang/opticsl ab.10/03/2012Lab4Instructions.M y.f it 7