The RSM1000 Spectrophotometer

The Olis RSM 1000 is a
Breakthrough for Spectroscopist!

The Olis RSM 1000 is a dual beam, double grating, photomultiplier based absorbance spectrophotometer with a routine data collection rate of 1,000 scans/sec. The Olis RSM 1000F is a dual beam (or single beam), photomultiplier based fluorescence spectrometer with routine data collection rates from 1 to 1,000 emission scans per second, variable based on the user selected intensity of the exciting beam and the intensity of the emitted light.

All configurations feature superb optical performance (exceedingly low stray light, high photometric accuracy, photometric precision, etc.). But where other spectrometers effect scanning by moving gratings the Olis RSM series effects scanning with a moving intermediate slit. This simple 'spinning intermediate slit disk' technology was awarded a US Patent and an R&D 100 award.

The RSM utilizes photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). PMTs are the most sensitive and fast detectors available and are usable over wide wavelength ranges and over wide dynamic ranges. (Nearly everyone presumes that the RSM is a diode array system, because diode array systems are fast. This is not a diode array: it is a double grating monochromator which is faster and more sensitive than a diode array system!)

The PMT based RSM is:
Photometrically Accurate
 It rejects stray light, takes dark readings thousands of times a second, and is a dual beam (sample/ reference) design.
Suitable for Measuring (even highly) Turbid Samples
This is possible because we position the PMTs 10 mm more or less as you need from the sample and reference cuvettes.

Sensitive
Sensitive enough to make millisecond spectral scans of luminescence signals such as fluorescence and bioluminescence spectra.
Will Not cause undesirable photolysis of a photolabile sample
Modest intense monochromatic light illuminates the sample; white light could be blasted on your sample to induce a photolytic change, but only when you want it to.


The rapid-scanning monochromator is a double grating system for stray light rejection (< 0.0001%) and true spectra acquisition (not difference spectra). As a subtractive double grating design, it provides a homogeneous output beam.

The Olis RSM is designed for maximum flexibility and modularity; the hardware and software can be optimized for each experiment. For instance, you can change optical ranges covered in each millisecond scan, you can fine-tune resolution, you can add a stopped-flow mixing system, or a photolysis apparatus, or do temperature dependent studies, all with obvious and easy hardware changes.

Fixed wavelength fluorescence or luminescence measurements can be made with the 'standard' absorbance model. And, after the addition of a brighter excitation source and a sister (excitation) monochromator, 1,000 emission scans per second can be captured.

The mathematics for 2D and 3D analysis provide you with instantaneous fitting of spectra and kinetics. Our use of ROBUST fitting rather than least squares fitting is correct.£¿ Our use of factor analysis is correct and 1300 fold faster than the published algorithm. (Fits on 1,000 spectral scans take one or two seconds to complete.)

Of course, what really matters are results. Three weeks after receiving his Olis RSM 1000 plus Olis, Prof Grant Mauk of the University of British Columbia wrote "We have one experiment produced by the RSM that will be included in a poster to be shown at [the 7th International Congress of Bioinorganic Chemistry]." That's results. Fast!