A broadband and high throughput single-monochromator Raman spectrometer: Application for single-wall carbon nanotubes

We present a high sensitivity single-monochromator Raman spectrometer which allows operation with a tunable laser source. The instrument is based on the modification of a commercial Raman spectrometer; such instruments operate with interference Rayleigh filters which also act as laser mirrors and are usually considered as inherently narrow band. In our design, the two tasks are separated and the filter can be freely rotated without much effect on the light alignment. Since rotation shifts the filter passband, this modification allows tunable operation with efficient stray light filtering down to 150 cm(-1). The design is optimized for single-wall carbon nanotubes, for which the performance is demonstrated using a tunable dye laser source. The spectrometer thus combines the high sensitivity with the broadband characteristics of usual triple monochromator systems. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3544023]