To get acquainted with the software and instrument, we suggest following the free lab instructions for “A Guided Inquiry Approach to Understanding Fluorescence Spectroscopy”, available on the experiment tab of the product’s main web page.
This experiment walks through several common sticking points.

Here are some helpful tips for improving your Vernier Fluorescence/UV-VIS Spectrophotometer (VSP-FUV) or Go Direct^® Fluorescence/UV-VIS Spectrophotometer (GDX-SPEC-FUV) data:

• Collect an absorbance spectrum of your sample first. This will help you decide which LED excitation will work the best for your application.
• If the absorbance reading where you plan to excite it is greater than 0.1 absorbance units, dilute your sample until it is around 0.1. Fluorescence is a very sensitive technique and requires samples to be more dilute than absorbance measurements. If samples are too concentrated, you may see low fluorescence emission peaks and/or distorted band shapes. This is due to the inner filter effect which is the reabsorption of emitted radiation.
• There are a number of sample parameters that you will likely need to adjust to get a good fluorescence spectrum. These parameters can be accessed from the Spectrometer Settings dialog box. In Logger Pro, access spectrometer settings by choosing Set Up Sensors ► Spectrometer from the Experiment menu. In Spectral Analysis, access spectrometer settings by tapping on the Gear icon. In LabQuest app, access spectrometer settings by tapping on Mode from the Meter screen.
  • Sample Time/Integration Time – This value is the time that the individual diodes (pixels) in the array are allowed to respond to light before they are “read out” and reset to zero. They respond linearly to light until they approach saturation. When students increase and decrease this value, the signal will get larger and smaller proportionally. You can adjust this value during live data collection to see the result.
  • LED Intensity – The intensity of the LED cartridge can be adjusted. This is similar to adjusting the slit width in a typical fluorescence spectrometer. Increasing the intensity should increase the signal.
  • Samples to Average/Temporal Averaging – This command sets the number of discrete spectral acquisitions that are accumulated before a spectrum is displayed. The higher the value, the better the signal to noise ratio. The draw back here is that the more samples your students are averaging, the longer they are going to have to wait for a stable spectrum.
• Make sure you are using the latest version of Logger Pro, LabQuest App, or Spectral Analysis (free updates are available here). In older versions, you are forced to calibrate in fluorescence mode. There is a bug during fluorescence calibration that does not honor the sample time you typed in before the calibration. This will cause spectra to look much smaller than you may anticipate. If you chose to calibrate, even in later versions, you will see this bug. The short-term fix is to change the sample time after calibration.