Mass Spectrometry

UV, IR and Ion Spectroscopy

UV spectroscopy or UV–visible spectrophotometry refers to absorption spectroscopy or reflectance spectroscopy in part of the ultraviolet and the full, adjacent visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. This means it uses light in the visible and adjacent ranges.

Infrared spectroscopy (IR spectroscopy) is the spectroscopy that deals with the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, that is light with a longer wavelength and lower frequency than visible light. It covers a range of techniques, mostly based on absorption spectroscopy.

Techniques such as ion scattering spectroscopy, which measures the energy reflected from a surface irradiated with an incident ion beam (usually ∼1keV), are not able to discriminate between elements with similar properties, i.e., they cannot distinguish small changes in atomic number or atomic weight.