Miniaturization of holographic Fourier-transform spectrometers

Wave propagation equations in the stationary-phase approximation have been used to identify the theoretical bounds of a miniature holographic Fourier-transform spectrometer (HFTS). It is demonstrated that the HFTS throughput can be larger than for a scanning Fourier-transform spectrometer. Given room- or a higher-temperature constraint, a small HFTS has the potential to outperform a small multichannel dispersive spectrograph with the same resolving power because of the size dependence of the signal-to-noise ratio. These predictions are used to analyze the performance of a miniature HFTS made from simple optical components covering a broad spectral range from the LTV to the near IR. The importance of specific primary aberrations in limiting the HFTS performance has been both identified and verified. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.