Attenuation light transmission spectra

Infrared spectra of zeolitic samples can be measured in several different modes. These include transmission, diffuse reflectance, attenuated total internal reflection (ATR) and emission. Transmission and diffuse reflectance are by far the most widely used of these techniques. In the transmission mode, the sample is placed directly in the infrared beam of the instrument and the light passing through or transmitted is measured by the detector. This transmitted signal (T) is ratioed to the open beam (no sample) signal (To) to get the transmission spectrum of the sample. The transmission spectrum is converted to an absorbance spectrum ... 

Internal reflection spectroscopy (2), also known as attenuated total reflectance (ATR), is a versatile, nondestructive technique for obtaining the IR spectrum of the surface of a material or the spectrum of materials either too thick or too strongly absorbing to be analyzed by standard transmission spectroscopy. The technique goes back to Newton who, in studies of the total reflection light at the interface between two media of different retractive indices, discovered that an evanescent wave in the less dense medium extends beyond the reflecting interface. Infrared spectra can conveniently be obtained by measuring the interaction of the evanescent wave with the external less dense medium. 

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