The SFS-Cube™ is a compact scanning spectrometer designed to measure the Spectral Fluorescence Signature (SFS) of liquid, powder and solid samples. The SFS is an excitation/emission matrix of spectral intensity of a sample with filtered out elastic (Rayleigh) scattering. The SFS-Cube™ is optically designed as an all-reflection spectrometer to operate in a wide spectral range with no chromatic aberrations.

The device has 2 configurations and can be used either:

• with optical fibers to conduct light to and from the sample;
  
• or a traditional 90-degree fluorescence measurement configuration with a small quartz cuvette for holding the liquid sample (~4ml).
  

The analyzer can be used in a large variety of spectrofluorometry applications, including the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the organic constituents in liquid, powder and solid samples, including PAH, oils, lubricants, phenols, organic chemicals, etc., as well as living materials (plants, bacteria, viruses, spores, etc.). SFS-Cube™ can work as a quick screening tool in an industrial environment, especially to reduce the number of routine and time-consuming analyses, giving quick qualitative and quantitative information about the changes in the oil or other chemical substance under investigation. The principle merits of this technique are its high sensitivity, selectivity, and simplicity of the operating procedure.

The principal optical layout of SFS-Cube™ is a front-face scheme (when using the fiber option) or 90-degree scheme (when using cuvette) for sample excitation and fluorescence measurements. Typically the detection of the substances of interest occurs in the presence of matrix effects by background surfaces or other chemicals in the measured sample. SFS technique uses several wavelengths of excitation to allow one to separate the fluorescence spectra of substances of interest from the background. 

The SFS analysis is done using pattern recognition algorithms by decomposing the measured SFS and comparing the patterns with corresponding spectral data in the SFS library. Different compounds in a mixture can be recognized and quantified without separation of individual substances.