An interferometer with a cylindrical lens which produces an interferogram imaging the field of view in the redundant coordinate onto a photon noise limited detector comprising a charge-coupled device or CCD having pixels aligned along two dimensions to provide spatial resolution in that dimension of the light source as well as spectral resolution. The CCD is also characterized by greater dynamic range, lower pixel response variation, and is photon noise limited, all of which enhances its use as a detector for a spectrometer.
A device to measure a phase shift of a step in a reticle is disclosed. The phase shift measuring device has a common path interferometer for receiving light from a light source and providing two point images separated from each other by an adjustable distance. A microscope having an objective focuses two point images to form two focused points along a reticle surface of the reticle. The reticle is moved between first and second positions, wherein at the first position, light beams from the two focused points enter the reticle surface, and wherein at the second position, the light beams from the two focused points enter a step surface of the step A detector receives light from the reticle for detection of the step phase shift.
A spectral imaging method for simultaneous detection of multiple fluorophores aimed at detecting and analyzing fluorescent in situ hybridizations employing numerous chromosome paints and/or loci specific probes each labeled with a different fluorophore or a combination of fluorophores for color karyotyping, and at multicolor chromosome banding, wherein each chromosome acquires a specifying banding pattern, which pattern is established using groups of chromosome fragments labeled with various fluorophore or combinations of fluorophores.
Optical instruments having, inter alia, optics to process wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation to produce an interferogram. The instruments include at least one optical path and optical elements positioned along this path for splitting the electromagnetic radiation and spectrally dispersing the wavelengths to produce first and second sets of spectrally dispersed beams which interfere with each other to produce a plurality of different fringes of different wavelengths. The optics for dispersing the wavelengths includes a matched pair of gratings. The gratings may be reflective or they may be transmissive. The optics also includes a beam splitter and first and second mirrors. The gratings may be positioned in a variety of locations along the optical path. The instruments can also include a detector for detecting the interferogram and means for processing the detected interferogram to produce spectral information.
A long-wave infrared hyperspectral sensor device employs a combination of an interferometer with an uncooled microbolometer array camera to produce hyperspectral images without the use of bulky, power-hungry motorized components, making it suitable for UAV vehicles, small mobile platforms, or in extraterrestrial environments. The sensor device can provide signal-to-noise ratios near 200 for ambient temperature scenes with 33 wavenumber resolution at a frame rate of 50 Hz, with higher results indicated by ongoing component improvements.
A method and apparatus for analyzing an optical image of a scene to determine the spectral intensity of each pixel thereof, by: collecting incident light from the scene; scanning the incident light; passing the scanned light through an interferometer which outputs modulated light corresponding to a predetermined set of linear combinations of the spectral intensity of the light emitted from each pixel; focusing the light outputted from the interferometer on a detector array; and processing the output of the detector array to determine the spectral intensity of each pixel thereof.
