time should be adjusted for a signal which does not exceed the maximum counts (16-bit CCD has 65,536, 14-bit CCD has 16,384). Saturation occurs when the integration time is set too high. Typically, a peak signal of about 85% of the maximum is a good target and yields a good S/N ratio. (ex: 60K counts or 16K counts respectively)

The number of scans indicates how many measurements will be averaged. Other things being equal, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of the collected spectra improves by