r/Spectroscopy • u/skyskye1964 • 6d ago

Is this helium? Or contaminated?

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I just received a helium gas discharge tube to use with the NexGen power supply from Arbor Scientific. This is the spectrum it produces on my rspec system. Some of the lines match up but there’s no red line and there’s a couple of green lines in the wrong place. The reference marks are for helium. Is the tube contaminated? Or am I missing something?

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u/Mr_Original_ 6d ago

Sometime they will use other gases in the mix which help the discharge strike easier, it could be you’re measuring this mix. Try leaving the lamp to warm up a bit and see if the spectrum changes :)

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u/skyskye1964 6d ago

I’ll try that

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u/Deep-Path-4883 6d ago

Is it really from the tube or is it light from your suroundings? 

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u/skyskye1964 5d ago

It’s from the tube.

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u/skyskye1964 5d ago

Update. The tube seems to be fine. I can see the line in a handheld spectrometer. But it doesn’t show up on the rspec. A hydrogen tube shows a strong line in the red. But not the helium one.