Study of the dark current in a spectrograph with a CCD camera

SANDOVAL SALINAS, CLAUDIA BEATRIZ; COLOMBO ELISA MARGARITA; SANDOVAL, JOSÉ DOMINGO; HANSELAER PETER; ACUÑA PAULA

Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais

Congreso; XII Congreso Iberoamericana de Iluminación. Lux América 2014; 2014

IEEE - AADL - ACDL

The spectral analysis of radiant quantities is usually performed using spectrographs with a CCD camera attached. The pixels of the CCD camera employ the photoelectric effect to generate electrical signals which are proportional to the intensity of light received. However, as a number of electrons will be generated even in the darkness, a ?dark current? will be recorded too which adds to the measurement of the signal of the light source being analyzed. In this work we present the study of the dark current of a spectrograph (Oriel Instruments, model 74055) with a CCD camera (Andor Technology, DB420-OE model, silicon based) attached. Values between 2 and 40 seconds were considered for the integration time. Detector temperature was varied between 238 and 288K. Data processing led to two mathematical models corresponding to the dependence of the dark current with the integration time and the temperature of the detector, respectively