Many chemical and molecular species have an unique set of spectral emission lines that can be used to identify them. These spectral lines cover the visible (VIS), near-IR (NIR), mid-wave IR (MWIR) and long-wave IR (LWIR) wavelength regions. Analytical instruments can be designed to detect these emission lines for applications as diverse as remote earth sensing, gas detection and chemical processing. One environmental application is the detection of H2O, CO2, CH4 and CO gas species at low concentration levels. Typically, bandpass filters are used in this application, transmitting the desired spectral line(s) and blocking all other wavelengths over the detector spectral response range.
Andover has manufactured numerous spectral emission line filters from the UV (340 nm) up to the mid-IR (10 um) and has prototyping capability up to 15 um. UV-visible spectral line emission filters have bandwidths varying from 1-20 nm, depending on the application requirements, while mid-IR emission filters have bandwidths of up to several hundred nm.
