Off-axis pivot mounting for aberration-corrected concave gratings at normal incidence

The off-axis pivot-point mounting for toroidal uniform line-space (TULS) gratings and spherical varied line-space (SVLS) is presented: One scans the spectrum by rotating the grating about the pivot point. The best choice for the location of the point is discussed: For a monochromator the location is chosen such that the grating is moved approximately along the bisector of the subtended angle; for a spectrometer, it is chosen such that the grating is moved approximately along the direction of the incident ray. Minimizing the spectral defocusing caused by the rotation of the grating determines the optimum length of the pivot arm. The pivot points for TULS and SVLS gratings are found to be located on opposite sides with respect to the normal to the grating. In a comparison of the optical performance, the spectral focusing is similar, but the spatial aberrations can be fewer for a SVLS grating.     

Stigmatic spectrometers for extended sources: design with toroidal varied-line-space gratings

Performances are presented of three classes of imaging slit spectrometers for extended sources with aberration-corrected gratings. A general analytical expression for minimizing off-axis grating aberrations is obtained, and it is demonstrated that these aberrations are minimized when the spectrometer is operated at a magnification higher than unity. Classical designs with toroidal uniform-line-spaced (TULS) or spherical varied-line-space (SVLS) gratings are compared with a new class of designs that utilize toroidal varied-line-space (TVLS) gratings. Although TULS and SVLS designs with two stigmatic points can be designed to operate at near-unity magnification with excellent on-axis spectral and spatial resolutions, they cannot be made to satisfy the general off-axis condition, and so their off-axis performances are not optimum. On the contrary TVLS designs with two stigmatic points can be operated at almost any magnification, thus satisfying the off-axis condition perfectly. Such designs are suitable for imaging spectrometer observations that require an extended field of view.     

Broadband FUV imaging spectrometer: advanced design with a single toroidal uniform-line-space grating

Performances of a far-ultraviolet (FUV) imaging spectrometer in an advanced design are presented with a toroidal uniform-line-space (TULS) grating. It provides high spatial resolution and spectral resolution for a broadband and a wide field of view. A particular analysis for the grating aberrations, including all the high-order coefficients neglected by previous existing designs, was generated for indicating their significance. The analysis indicates that these high-order off-axis aberrations would have a remarkable influence on the design results. The transcendental equations composed of these aberration coefficients do not have analytic solutions in algebra. To solve the problem, the past designs always do some simplified calculation which only suits a narrow field of view and waveband. Thus, the optimization of the genetic algorithm is introduced to propose reasonable ranges of optical parameters. Then ZEMAX software is used to obtain the final optical system from these ranges. By comparing different design results of the same example, our advanced TULS design performs better than conventional TULS design and spherical varied-line-space grating design, and as well as the toroidal varied-line-space design. It is demonstrated that aberrations are minimized when the TULS design is operated by our method. The advanced design is low-cost, easy to fabricate, and more suitable for FUV observations.     

High-resolution two-grating spectrometer for dual wavelength spectral imaging

A two-grating high-resolution spectrometer for dual wavelength imaging is demonstrated based on the standard Czerny-Turner mounting with an auxiliary grating and a mirror. A two-dimensional charge-coupled device (CCD) detector in the spectrometer focal plane allows simultaneous detection of two spectral intervals. Each spectrometer grating is driven by a high-precision stepper motor interfaced to a computer via home-made software. The software allows fast tuning of the gratings to a desirable spectral interval anywhere between 200 nm and 800 nm. The spectral interval widths are 2-3 nm for a 'high-resolution' (2400 grooves/mm) grating and 4-5 nm for a 'low-resolution' (1200 grooves/mm) grating. The resolution varies between 0.01 nm and 0.02 nm depending on the grating used. The performance of the spectrometer is demonstrated by detecting spectrally resolved images from a back-illuminated template and from a laser-induced plasma. The spectrometer can be useful for two-line spectroscopic diagnostics or can be expanded for multi-element spectral analysis.     

High-resolution, flat-field, plane-grating, f/10 spectrograph with off-axis parabolic mirrors

A high-resolution, flat-field, plane-grating, f/10 spectrometer based on the novel design proposed by Gil and Simon [Appl. Opt. 22, 152 (1983)] is demonstrated. The spectrometer design employs off-axis parabolic collimation and camera mirrors in a configuration that eliminates spherical aberrations and minimizes astigmatism, coma, and field curvature in the image plane. In accordance with theoretical analysis, the performance of this spectrometer achieves a high spatial resolution over the large detection area, which is shown to be limited only by the quality of its optics and their proper alignment within the spatial resolution of a 13 microm x 13 microm pixelated CCD detector. With a 1500 lines/mm grating in first order, the measured spectral resolving power of lambda/Dlambda = 2.5(+/-0.5) x 10(4) allows the clear resolution of the violet Ar(I) doublet at 419.07 and 419.10 nm.     

Design for an aberration-corrected concave grating for a mid-infrared long-slit spectrometer

A new design for an aberration-corrected concave grating for the spectral region near 10 mum is presented. It was designed for use in the ground-based astronomical medium-resolution (lambda/Dlambda ~ 100) Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (MICS). It provides a flat focal plane for a wide spectral range (7.5-13.5 mum) with small aberrations, permitting efficient long-slit observations in the mid-infrared region. It permits a simple design of the spectrometer without collimator and camera mirrors, which is quite advantageous for cryogenic instruments. The grating has variable spacing grooves to reduce aberrations. In addition, the grating surface figure is designed to be toroidal and in the direction perpendicular to the grooves, aspherical, to suppress the aberrations further over a wide spectral range. The angle of the grooves is also varied to yield better efficiency near the blaze angle. The grating was fabricated by high-quality ultraprecision machining, which made these features possible. Test observations confirmed that the designed spectral resolution was achieved.     

Aberration-corrected concave grating for the mid-infrared spectrometer aboard the Infrared Telescope in Space

A mechanically ruled aberration-corrected concave grating was developed for use in the low-resolution mid-infrared spectrometer aboard the cryogenically cooled Infrared Telescope in Space. The design and the performance testing of the grating are reported. The spectrometer requires a wide spectral range (4.5-11.7 μm) and a wide field of view (8 × 8 arcmin) with a low wavelength resolution (Δλ ≤ 0.3 μm). The aberration-corrected concave grating provides a flat focal plane with a small aberration in the spatial direction compared with those caused by the finite size of the entrance slit. It also permits a simple design for the spectrometer, which is advantageous for applications in space cryogenic instruments. The measurements of the wavelength resolution and the spatial resolution are shown to be in good agreement with the predicted performance. The diffraction efficiency of the grating is more than 80% at the blaze wavelength (6 μm) and fairly high (>30%) over the entire wavelength range in question. The grating produces polarization of less than 10% for λ < 6.4 μm and of 10-20% for 6.7 μm <λ 9.7 μm. These results indicate the potential applicability of this type of grating to the wide-field IR spectroscopic observations.     

On-axis beam extinction through diffraction design and analysis

To optimize the functions of the surface-relief diffractive optical elements for optical limiters and other applications, we present a systematic design and analysis with numerical illustrations of the transmission properties of different surface-relief phase gratings and Fabry-Perot elements. The spectral response and the tolerance of fabrication errors have been included. An analysis shows that the blazed grating and the echelon grating, a multilevel element as a substitute of the blazed grating, can make the on-axis transmittance very low (less than 1% with one grating) over the broad visible band with a large tolerance of fabrication errors. The results are highly significant for the design of optical-limiting devices.     

Characteristics of an absolutely calibrated flat-field extreme ultraviolet spectrometer in the 10-130 A range for fusion plasma diagnostics

A flat-field extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrometer with a nominal 2400 grooves/mm aberration-corrected ruled grating has been developed to analyze the emission spectrum in the wavelength range of 10 to 130 A from large helical device (LHD) plasmas. Spectral properties such as resolution, sensitivity, contribution of higher-order light, and background stray light have been studied using emission spectra mainly from intrinsic impurities, e.g., C and Fe. It is found that the spectrometer well resolves closely existing spectral lines of highly ionized medium- and high-Z impurities even in a very short wavelength range such as 10 to 20 A. As a result, it allows one to study the charge state distribution of elements in high-temperature fusion plasma. The ruled grating was then replaced by a laminar type holographic grating for the comparative study. The spectral resolution for the ruled grating (Dlambda approximately 0.08 A at 33.73 A) is clearly better than the holographic grating (Dlambda approximately 0.13 A at 33.73 A). Both gratings well suppress the higher-order light, e.g., the second-order light is only less than 11% of the first-order light for C vi(33.73 A). Relative sensitivity calibration with the wavelength has been done using bremsstrahlung continuum from the LHD plasmas. Absolute intensity calibration has been done by comparing the spectral intensities directly with the absolutely calibrated 1200 grooves/mm EUV spectrometer in the overlapping range of 90-120 A due to the absence of a good branching pair in 10-130 A. As a typical result on the present spectrometer well-resolved n=2-3 full transition arrays from Ne- to Li-like ions are measured for Fe and Ti and wavelengths of the spectral array are tabulated for each charge state. Spectroscopic comparison is also made between the 1200 grooves/mm and 2400 grooves/mm gratings in a range of 50-130 A.     

Dispersion multiplexing with broadband filtering for miniature spectrometers

We replace the traditional grating used in a dispersive spectrometer with a multiplex holographic grating to increase the spectral range sensed by the instrument. The multiplexed grating allows us to measure three different, overlapping spectral bands on a color digital focal plane. The detector's broadband color filters, along with a computational inversion algorithm, let us disambiguate measurements made from the three bands. The overlapping spectral bands allow us to measure a greater spectral bandwidth than a traditional spectrometer with the same sized detector. Additionally, our spectrometer uses a static coded aperture mask in the place of a slit. The aperture mask allows increased light throughput, offsetting the photon loss at the broadband filters. We present our proof-of-concept dispersion multiplexing spectrometer design with experimental measurements to verify its operation.     

Optimal implementation of a microspectrometer based on a single flat diffraction grating

An analytical model has been developed and applied to explore the limits in the design of a highly miniaturized planar optical microspectrometer based on an imaging diffraction grating. This design tool has been validated as providing the smallest possible dimensions while maintaining acceptable spectral resolution. The resulting planar spectrometer is composed of two parallel glass plates, which contain all components of the device, including a reflective slit and an imaging diffraction grating. Fabrication is based on microelectromechanical system technology and starts with a single glass wafer; IC-compatible deposition and lithography are applied to realize the parts in aluminum, which makes the microspectrometer highly tolerant for component mismatch. The fabricated spectrometer was mounted directly on top of an image sensor and takes up a volume of only 50 mm(3). The measured spectral resolution of 6 nm (FWHM) in the 100 nm operating wavelength range (600-700 nm) is in agreement with a model calculation.     

Dedicated spectrometers based on diffractive optics: Design,modelling and evaluation

Abstract

The described design of diffractive optical elements for low cost IR-spectrometers gives a built-in wavelength reference and allows ‘spectral arithmetic’ to be implemented in the optical performance of the DOE. The diffractive element combines the function of the lenses and the grating and eliminates the need for alignment of those components in the standard scanned grating spectrometer design. The element gives out a set of foci, each with one spectral component, which are scanned across a detector, thus relaxing the demands for scan angle control. It can thus be regarded as an alternative solution to a beam splitter and band pass filter instrument. Software tools have been designed to ease the adaptation of the design to different applications. To model the performance of the spectrometers we have implemented a scalar Rayleigh-Sommerfeldt diffraction model. The gold-coated elements are produced by injection moulding using a compact disc (CD) moulding technique and mould inlays mastered by e-beam lithography. The optimized selection of wavelength bands and the classification of the measured signal use a combination of principal component analysis and robust statistical methods. Typical applications will be material characterization of recycled plastics and gas monitoring. Spectrometers for two different applications have been built and tested. Comparisons between the design goals and the measured performance have been made and show good agreements.     

Design of a high-throughput grazing-incidence flat-field spectrometer

The optical design of a high-throughput grazing-incidence flat-field spectrometer is presented. The spectral focal curve is almost a straight line because of the flat-field focusing properties of spherical variable-line-spaced gratings. The angular acceptance in the direction perpendicular to the plane of dispersion is maximized by means of a focusing spherical mirror mounted with its tangential plane coincident with the sagittal plane of the grating. Analytical calculations for the determination of the optimum mirror parameters are presented. A spectrometer for high-throughput experiments in the 800-60-eV region is designed with an extreme-ultraviolet-enhanced CCD detector: when the available flux is compared with that of a spectrometer with the same kinds of grating and detector but without a focusing mirror, the increase is as much as a factor 3.     

Fourier transform atomic absorption flame spectrometry with continuum source excitation

The design and performance of a Fourier transform atomic absorption flame spectrometer (FT-AAS) is presented. A 300-W xenon arc continuum source and a Michelson interferometer are used. A signal to noise disadvantage arising from the multiplex feature of FT-AAS is demonstrated by varying the photon flux at the detector without changing the exciting radiation. A grating is used for dispersion of the radiation before the interferometer to reduce the spectral window at the photomultiplier tube. Detection limits for several elements are generally an order of magnitude poorer than those obtained by continuum atomic absorption methods using echelle-grating spectrometers. Line profiles and absorption spectra, within the region of the spectral window selected by the grating, can be obtained with this method. Standard curves for sodium were constructed to extend the linear calibration range, by using absorbances measured at the absorption maximum and 0.022 nm off-line.     

Time-resolved x-ray transmission grating spectrometer for studying laser-produced plasmas

The development of a new time-resolved x-ray spectrometer is reported in which a free-standing x-ray transmission grating is coupled to a soft x-ray streak camera. The instrument measures continuous x-ray spectra with 20-psec temporal resolution and moderate spectral resolution (deltalambda >/= 1 A) over a broad spectral range (0.1-5 keV) with high sensitivity and large information recording capacity. Its capabilities are well suited to investigation of laser-generated plasmas, and they nicely complement the characteristics of other time-resolved spectroscopic techniques presently in use. The transmission grating spectrometer has been used on a variety of laser-plasma experiments. We report the first measurements of the temporal variation of continuous low-energy x-ray spectra from laser-irradiated disk targets.     

Accurate wavelength calibration method for flat-field grating spectrometers

A portable spectrometer prototype is built to study wavelength calibration for flat-field grating spectrometers. An accurate calibration method called parameter fitting is presented. Both optical and structural parameters of the spectrometer are included in the wavelength calibration model, which accurately describes the relationship between wavelength and pixel position. Along with higher calibration accuracy, the proposed calibration method can provide information about errors in the installation of the optical components, which will be helpful for spectrometer alignment.     

远红外光光栅光谱仪测量误差分析

采用平面闪耀光栅作为光谱元件的远红外光谱测量原理,分析了四种主要的重复性误差:光栅常数制造误差、零点标定误差、转角测量误差、入射光束与衍射光束的夹角测量误差。 并分别以112.5mm、40.05mm、25mm和12mm的四种闪耀波长为例,计算出了它们的误差传递系数曲线,根据误差传递系数对光谱仪进行误差分配,分析和计算表明:当光栅转角测量精度为1,光栅常数误差为0.5mm时,光谱仪可以满足l/100的波长测量误差要求和l/200的波长重复性测量误差要求。     

Zoom lens design for a novel imaging spectrometer that controls spatial and spectral resolution individually

A novel imaging spectrometer can individually control spatial and spectral resolution by using zoom lenses as the foreoptics of the system and a focusing lens. By varying the focal length we can use the focusing lens to change the spatial and spectral dimensions; with the foreoptics, however, we can change only the spatial dimension. Therefore the spectral resolution and the spectral range are affected by the zoom ratio of the focusing lens, whereas the spatial resolution and the field of view are affected by the multiplication of the zoom ratios of the foreoptics and the focusing lens. By properly combining two zoom ratios, we can control the spectral resolution with a fixed spatial resolution or the spatial resolution with a fixed spectral resolution. For an imaging spectrometer with this novel zooming function, we used the lens module method and third-order aberration theory to design an initial four-group zoom system with an external entrance pupil for the focusing lens. Furthermore, using the optical design software CODE V, we obtained an optimized zoom lens with a focal-length range of 50 to 150 mm. Finally, the zoom system with its transmission grating in the Littrow configuration performs satisfactorily as the focusing lens of an imaging spectrometer in the wavelength range 450-900 nm.     

Analytical model of spectrometer-based two-beam spectral interferometry

We report an analytical model of signal formation in spectrometer-based two-beam spectral interferometry. Considering the pixel size, the optical resolution and the spectral resolution of the spectrometer, and dispersion, the model represents the signal recorded by a spectrometer based on a diffraction grating and linear detector array. The model is general, but degenerates to more familiar forms with simplifying assumptions. The model is validated by comparison with experimental measurements, where it is shown that the model can accurately predict both signal fall-off and axial resolution for Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography imaging. The model may be useful for determining design specifications and expected performance parameters for spectrometers for spectral interferometry.