Spectroscopy

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Spectroscopy, in physics and physical chemistry, the study of spectra (see Spectrum). The basis of spectroscopy is that each chemical element has its own characteristic spectrum. This fact was recognized in 1859 by German scientists Gustav Robert Kirchhoff and Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. They developed the prism spectroscope in its modern form and applied it to chemical analysis. One of two principal spectroscope types, this instrument consists of a slit for admitting light from an external source, a group of lenses, a prism, and an eyepiece. Light that is to be analyzed passes through a collimating lens, which makes the light rays parallel, and the prism; then the image of the slit is focused at the eyepiece. One actually sees a series of images of the slit, each a different color, because the light has been separated into its component colors by the prism. The German scientists were the first to recognize that characteristic colors of light, or the spectra, are emitted and absorbed by particular elements.

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