Abstract
A hardware cross-correlator has been developed as a readout system for a photodiode array spectrometer. With this system a reference spectrum is stored in a transient recorder and used as an electronic correlation mask for the detection and measurement of the same spectral signal. The correlator is described and then applied to the detection of Ca and Cr emission signals from an inductively coupled plasma source. The applicability of this correlator to the detection of a specific spectral pattern in the presence of a more complex partially overlapping spectral signal is also illustrated.