The IVIS spectroscopy laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh houses instrumentation used to characterize the major mineralogy of a range of samples, from bulk rock and man-made substances to fine powders and soils. The primary analysis tool is a Nexus Nicolet 670 FTIR spectrometer fitted with two external ports to measure both reflected and emitted wavelengths. The spectrometer and external gloveboxes are constantly purged using air scrubbed of water vapor (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). More info can be found here.
VSWIR Measurements: The hemispherical reflectance analysis takes place using external equipment mounted to the left spectrometer exit port. An internal quartz beam splitter (0.37 – 3.57 microns) is paired either with a silicon detector (0.37 – 1.16 microns) or thermo-electrically cooled deuterated triglycine sulfate (TE-DTGS) detector (0.8 – 28.6 microns) mounted to a Labsphere six inch integrating sphere coated with Spectralon. Particulate and small solid samples can be measured.
TIR Measurements: The thermal emission analysis uses an internal liquid nitrogen cooled mercury cadmium telluride (MCT-B) detector (range: 0.8 – 25 microns) is paired with an extended range potassium bromide (XT-KBr) beam splitter (0.9 – 26.7 microns). Particulate and whole rock samples can be measured using a standard emission approach calibrated with an external blackbody. Alternatively, samples can be heated using a custom micro-furnace apparatus, capable of heating several grams of material from 500 – 1600˚C in order to study the structural and radiative property changes as samples undergo phase transitions and melting. Various gases can be introduced if an oxygen environment is not desired.
Field Measurements: The IVIS Laboratory also has a variety of field based thermal cameras, thermal multispectral imagers, and hyperspectral field spectrometers. These include a FLIR S40 and T1030sc thermal IR cameras, custom built multispectral thermal cameras (6-band and 12-band), and an ASD Fieldspec HH VNIR spectrometer.