Dispersion interferometers

The dispersing element to be described in Section 3.3 splits up the radiation into its component wavelengths and is likely to be a prism, diffraction grating or interferometer, but microwave and millimetre wave spectroscopy do not require such an element. 

Although prisms, as dispersing elements, have been largely superseded by diffraction gratings and interferometers they still have uses in spectroscopy and they also illustrate some important general points regarding dispersion and resolution. 

In the infrared spectral range in general Fourier transform (FT) interferometers are used. In comparison with dispersive spectrometers FTIR enables higher optical throughput and the multiplex advantage at equivalent high spectral resolution. In... 

The fringes contrasts are subject to degradation resulting from dissymmetry in the interferometer. The optical fields to be mixed are characterized by a broadband spectrum so that differential dispersion may induce a variation of the differential phase over the spectrum. Detectors are sensitive to the superposition of the different spectral contributions. If differential dispersion shifts the fringes patterns for the different frequency, the global interferogramme is blurred and the contrast decreases. Fig. 5 shows corresponding experimental results. 

Figure 5. Evolution of the fringes contrast C as a function of the differential dispersion (a.u.) The maximum of this function corresponds to the cancellation of differential dispersion between the fibre arms of the interferometer.

Vergnole, S., Delage, L., Reynaud, R, 2004, Accurate measurement of differential chromatic dispersion and contrast in an hectometric fibre interferometer in the frame of GHANA project. Optics Comm, submitted... 

Modern IR spectrometers do not use light dispersion to acquire spectra. Rather, they utilize a device called an interferometer between the source and the sample. This design requires a signal processing circuit that performs a mathematical operation called a Fourier transformation to obtain the spectra. 

Because of the relatively large dispersion from the electrons compared with the almost constant refractivity of the neutrals and the negligible contribution of the ions, it is possible, with simultaneous measurements at two different wavelength, to determine independent values of the density of electrons and of the nonelectronic components in the plasma 274). Alcock and Ramsden 275) used the light from a giant-pulse ruby laser and its second harmonic generated in an ADP-crystal (ammonium dihydrogen phosphate) to probe a pulsed plasma and its time-dependent density in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. 

In a Fourier transform IR instrument the principles are the same except that the monochromator is replaced by an interferometer. An interferometer uses a moving mirror to displace part of the radiation produced by a source (Fig. 5.4) thus producing an interferogram which can be transformed using an equation called the Fourier transform in order to extract the spectrum from a series of overlapping frequencies. The advantage of this technique is that a full spectral scan can be acquired in about 1 s compared to the 2-3 min required for a dispersive instrument... 

Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers encode infrared wavenumbers by moving a mirror in a Michelson interferometer which results in a unique, path-dependent pattern of interference for each light wavelength in the IR beam. FTIRs have come to totally dominate the IR market and are the means by which most of the work described in this review was accomplished. Only for some special applications (modulation spectra and time-dependence studies) are dispersive-based (scanning monochromator or tuned laser) spectrometers still used. The advantages of the FTIR approach are that the entire spectral region of interest can... 

It is noteworthy that this was one of the first published chemical studies where IR spectra were taken with a Michelson-Interferometer rather than with a dispersive instrument. In fact, Masamune claims that it was only by virtue of this new technology that he and his co-workers were able to pinpoint the missing bands of CB (S. Masamune, personal communication). 

Howard has applied his method to high-resolution infrared spectroscopic data obtained by dispersive techniques and to both experimental and simulated Fourier interferograms. The method in the latter application explicitly renders the data as they would be observed by an interferometer having a path difference exceeding the mechanical limits of the instrument used for the observation. Details on both the method and its application constitute Chapters 9 and 10. 

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