Materials for Imaging Acousto-Optic Tunable Filters

Research and development of robust compact hyperspectral imagers that can acquire both spectral and spatial features from a scene of interest is of utmost importance for standoff detection of targets as well as chemical and biological agents and backgrounds. Hyperspectral imagers can acquire images with a large number of narrow spectral bands and take advantage of the characteristic spectral signatures of different materials making up the scene. At the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), we are developing hyperspectral imagers based on acousto-optic tunable filters (AOTFs) that can provide adaptive no-moving-parts imagers from the ultraviolet (UV) to the long wave infrared (LWIR) to acquire a two-dimensional spectral image and build up a two-dimensional image cube as a function of time instead of using traditional grating or prism based approach that requires relative motion between sensor and scene. Here, we will review the development of different imaging AOTFs operating from the UV to the LWIR based on a variety of birefringent materials and include the spectral imaging carried out with these filters including both with single and double piezoelectric transducers. We will also include the theoretical background needed to carry out the filter design and discuss development of mercurous halide crystals that can be used to develop AOTFs operating over a wide spectral region from the visible to the LWIR.