plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum: Plot function for an RLum.Data.Spectrum S4 class object

In Luminescence: Comprehensive Luminescence Dating Data Analysis

Plot function for an RLum.Data.Spectrum S4 class object

Description

The function provides a standardised plot output for spectrum data of an RLum.Data.Spectrum class object. The purpose of this function is to provide easy and straightforward spectra plotting, not a fully customised access to all plot parameters. If this is wanted, standard R plot functionality should be used instead.

Matrix structure
(cf. RLum.Data.Spectrum)

• rows (x-values): wavelengths/channels (xlim, xlab)

• columns (y-values): time/temperature (ylim, ylab)

• cells (z-values): count values (zlim, zlab)

Note: This nomenclature is valid for all plot types of this function!

Nomenclature for value limiting

• xlim: Limits values along the wavelength axis

• ylim: Limits values along the time/temperature axis

• zlim: Limits values along the count value axis

Details on the plot functions

Spectrum is visualised as 3D or 2D plot. Both plot types are based on internal R plot functions.

plot.type = "persp"

Arguments that will be passed to graphics::persp:

• shade: default is 0.4

• phi: default is 15

• theta: default is -30

• lphi: default is 15

• ltheta: default is -30

• expand: default is 1

• axes: default is TRUE

• box: default is TRUE; accepts "alternate" for a custom plot design

• ticktype: default is detailed, r: default is 10

Note: Further parameters can be adjusted via par. For example to set the background transparent and reduce the thickness of the lines use: par(bg = NA, lwd = 0.7) before the function call.

plot.type = "single"

Per frame a single curve is returned. Frames are time or temperature steps.

-frames: pick the frames to be plotted (depends on the binning!). Check without this setting before plotting.

plot.type = "multiple.lines"

All frames plotted in one frame.

-frames: pick the frames to be plotted (depends on the binning!). Check without this setting before plotting.

plot.type = "image" or plot.type = "contour"

These plot types use the R functions graphics::image or graphics::contour. The advantage is that many plots can be arranged conveniently using standard R plot functionality. If plot.type = "image" a contour is added by default, which can be disabled using the argument contour = FALSE to add own contour lines of choice.

plot.type = "transect"

Depending on the selected wavelength/channel range a transect over the time/temperature (y-axis) will be plotted along the wavelength/channels (x-axis). If the range contains more than one channel, values (z-values) are summed up. To select a transect use the xlim argument, e.g. xlim = c(300,310) plot along the summed up count values of channel 300 to 310.

• add: default is FALSE: adds the plot to an existing plot

• smooth: default is FALSE: performs a simple curve smoothing

• transect_mode: default is sum: sets the integration mode for the transect along the wavelength axis. Other allowed values are mean, mean, min, max

Further arguments that will be passed (depending on the plot type)

xlab, ylab, zlab, xlim, ylim, zlim, main, mtext, box, pch, type ("single", "multiple.lines", "interactive"), col, border, lwd, bty, showscale ("interactive", "image") contour, contour.col ("image"), labcex ("image", "contour"), n_breaks ("image"), legend (TRUE/FALSE), legend.text ("multiple.lines"), legend.pos ("image"), legend.horiz (TRUE/FALSE | "image")

Usage

plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(
  object,
  par.local = TRUE,
  plot.type = c("contour", "persp", "single", "multiple.lines", "image", "transect",
    "interactive"),
  optical.wavelength.colours = TRUE,
  bg.spectrum = NULL,
  bg.channels = NULL,
  bin.rows = 1,
  bin.cols = 1,
  norm = FALSE,
  rug = TRUE,
  limit_counts = NULL,
  xaxis.energy = FALSE,
  plot = TRUE,
  ...
)

Arguments

object	RLum.Data.Spectrum or matrix (required): S4 object of class RLum.Data.Spectrum or a matrix containing count values of the spectrum. Please note that in case of a matrix row names and col names are set automatically if not provided.
par.local	logical (with default): use local graphical parameters for plotting, e.g. the plot is shown in one column and one row. If par.local = FALSE global parameters are inherited.
plot.type	character (with default): for a 3D-plot use "persp" or "interactive"; for a 2D-plot you can use "image", "contour", "single" or "multiple.lines" (along the time or temperature axis) or "transect" (along the wavelength axis).
optical.wavelength.colours	logical (with default): use optical wavelength colour palette. Note: For this, the spectrum range is limited: c(350,750). Own colours can be set with the argument col. If you provide already binned spectra, the colour assignment is likely to be wrong, since the colour gradients are calculated using the bin number.
bg.spectrum	RLum.Data.Spectrum or matrix (optional): spectrum used for the background subtraction. The background spectrum should be measured using the same setting as the signal spectrum. The argument bg.channels controls how the subtraction is performed: if bg.channels is not specified or the number of channels is identical between the signal and background spectra, a channel-wise subtraction is performed; otherwise, the arithmetic mean is calculated and subtracted from the signal.
bg.channels	vector (optional): channels used for background subtraction. If the number of channels is identical between the signal and background spectra, a channel-wise subtraction is performed; otherwise this number is used to select channels for calculating the arithmetic mean If a spectrum is provided via bg.spectrum, this argument only works on the background spectrum. Note: Background subtraction is applied prior to channel binning!
bin.rows	integer (with default): allow summing-up wavelength channels (horizontal binning), e.g. bin.rows = 2 two channels are summed up. Binning is applied after the background subtraction.
bin.cols	integer (with default): allow summing-up channel counts (vertical binning) for plotting, e.g. bin.cols = 2 two channels are summed up. Binning is applied after the background subtraction.
norm	logical, character (optional): if logical, whether curve normalisation should occur (FALSE by default); alternatively, one of the values detailed in plot_RLum.Data.Curve. The normalisation is applied after binning.
rug	logical (with default): enable/disable colour rug. Currently only implemented for plot type multiple.lines and single.
limit_counts	numeric (optional): value to limit all count values to this value, i.e. all count values above this threshold will be replaced by this threshold. This is helpful especially in case of TL-spectra.
xaxis.energy	logical (with default): enable/disable using energy instead of wavelength on the x-axis. Function convert_Wavelength2Energy is used to perform the conversion. Note: Besides being used in setting the axis, with this option the the spectrum is recalculated in terms of intensity, see details.
plot	logical (with default): enable/disable the plot output. If the plot output is disabled, the matrix used for the plotting and the calculated colour values (as attributes) are returned. This way, the (binned, transformed etc.) output can be used in other functions and packages, such as plotting with the package 'plot3D'.
...	further arguments and graphical parameters that will be passed to the plot function.

Value

Returns a plot and the transformed matrix used for plotting with some useful attributes such as colour and pmat (the transpose matrix from graphics::persp).

Function version

0.6.18

How to cite

Kreutzer, S., 2026. plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(): Plot function for an RLum.Data.Spectrum S4 class object. Function version 0.6.18. In: Kreutzer, S., Burow, C., Dietze, M., Fuchs, M.C., Schmidt, C., Fischer, M., Friedrich, J., Mercier, N., Philippe, A., Riedesel, S., Autzen, M., Mittelstrass, D., Gray, H.J., Galharret, J., Colombo, M., Steinbuch, L., de Boer, A., Bluszcz, A., 2026. Luminescence: Comprehensive Luminescence Dating Data Analysis. R package version 1.3.1. https://r-lum.github.io/Luminescence/

Note

Not all additional arguments (...) will be passed similarly!

Author(s)

Sebastian Kreutzer, F2.1 Geophysical Parametrisation/Regionalisation, LIAG - Institute for Applied Geophysics (Germany) , RLum Developer Team

See Also

RLum.Data.Spectrum, convert_Wavelength2Energy, plot_RLum, graphics::persp, plotly::plot_ly, graphics::contour, graphics::image

Examples

##load example data
data(ExampleData.XSYG, envir = environment())

##(1)plot simple spectrum (2D) - image
plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(
 TL.Spectrum,
 plot.type="image",
 xlim = c(310,750),
 ylim = c(0,300),
 bin.rows=10,
 bin.cols = 1)

##(2) plot spectrum (3D)
plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(
  TL.Spectrum,
  plot.type="persp",
  xlim = c(310,750),
  ylim = c(0,100),
  bin.rows=10,
  bin.cols = 1)

##(3) plot spectrum on energy axis
##please note the background subtraction
plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(TL.Spectrum,
plot.type="persp",
ylim = c(0,200),
bin.rows=10,
bg.channels = 10,
bin.cols = 1,
xaxis.energy = TRUE)

##(4) plot multiple lines (2D) - multiple.lines (with ylim)
plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(
 TL.Spectrum,
 plot.type="multiple.lines",
 xlim = c(310,750),
 ylim = c(0,100),
 bin.rows=10,
 bin.cols = 1)

## Not run: 
 ##(4) interactive plot using the package plotly ("surface")
 plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(TL.Spectrum, plot.type="interactive",
 xlim = c(310,750), ylim = c(0,300), bin.rows=10,
 bin.cols = 1)

 ##(5) interactive plot using the package plotly ("contour")
 plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(TL.Spectrum, plot.type="interactive",
 xlim = c(310,750), ylim = c(0,300), bin.rows=10,
 bin.cols = 1,
 type = "contour",
 showscale = TRUE)

 ##(6) interactive plot using the package plotly ("heatmap")
 plot_RLum.Data.Spectrum(TL.Spectrum, plot.type="interactive",
 xlim = c(310,750), ylim = c(0,300), bin.rows=10,
 bin.cols = 1,
 type = "heatmap",
 showscale = TRUE)

## End(Not run)

Luminescence documentation built on Sept. 18, 2026, 9:07 a.m.