Infrared spectrometer with enhanced readout speed

摘要

A Fourier transform infrared spectrometer includes a beam splitter (22), end mirrors (21, 23), one of which may be scanned, and detectors (32) detecting the interfered light at the two outputs of a beam combiner (22), which may be the same optical element as the beam splitter (22). Time records of detector samples may be transformed by Fourier transform to obtain the corresponding spectra. The detectors (32) may be sampled alternately in time and the samples subsequently interleaved to provide an increased effective sampling rate. The detectors (32) may be masked by color filter mosaics so that each pixel of each detector is sensitive only to one color of light, and the spectra obtained from pixels detecting different colors may be concatenated.

主权项

1. An infrared Fourier transform spectrometer, comprising:
an optical structure (22, 25) configured to split received light into two paths; two mirrors (21,23) for reflecting the light in the two paths,
wherein at least one mirror (23) is movable to perform a scan; the optical structure (22, 25) being further configured to combine the light reflected by the mirrors (21,23), the optical structure having two outputs (26,28); and a first detector (32) at a first output (26), and a second detector (32) at a second output (28), for detecting the light flux at the first and second outputs respectively; each detector (32) having a plurality of pixels; two of the pixels being configured to obtain pixel samples alternately in time.