Fourier transform infrared beamsplitter

A significant advance was the application of the Fourier transform technique to enhance the signal. The optical arrangement of a Fourier transform infrared (FUR) spectrometer is shown in Fig. 27.37 (Habib and Bockris, 1984). A beam of light from an IR source is directed to a beamsplitter, where part of the beam is transmitted to a... 

The heart of a Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer is the interferometer in Figure 20-26. Radiation from the source at the left strikes a beamsplitter, which transmits some light and reflects some light. For the sake of this discussion, consider a beam of monochromatic radiation. (In fact, the Fourier transform spectrophotometer uses a continuum source of infrared radiation, not a monochromatic source.) For simplicity, suppose that the beamsplitter reflects half of the light and transmits half. When light strikes the beamsplitter at point O, some is reflected to a stationary mirror at a distance OS and some is transmitted to a movable mirror at a distance OM. The rays reflected by the mirrors travel back to the beamsplitter, where half of each ray is transmitted and half is reflected. One recombined ray travels in the direction of the detector, and another heads back to the source. 

Figure 20-29 Fourier transform infrared spectrum of polystyrene film. The Fourier transform of the background interferogram gives a spectrum determined by the source intensity, beamsplitter efficiency, detector response, and absorption by traces of H20 and C02 in the atmosphere. The sample compartment is purged with dry N2 to reduce the levels of H20 and C02. The transform of the sample interferogram is a measure of all the instrumental factors, plus absorption by the sample. The transmission spectrum is obtained by dividing the sample transform by the background transform.

All infrared spectra were recorded with an IR-PLAN microscope (IR-PLAN is a registered trade mark of Spectra Tech, Inc.) integrated to a Perkin-Elmer Model 1800 Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrophotometer. The spectrophotometer consisted of a proprietary heated wire source operated at 1050°C, a germanium overcoated potassium bromide beamsplitter, and a narrow-band mercury-cadmium-telluride (HgCdTe) detector. The detector was dedicated to the microscope and had an active area of 250 x 250 pm. The entire optical path of the system microscope was purged with dry nitrogen. 

A miniaturized Fourier transform spectrometer for near-infrared measurements (FTIR, 2500-8330 nm) was developed at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe [120], Near-infrared measurements give information, for example, about the oil, water and protein content of liquids or solids. The dimensions of the detector chip are 11.5 x 9.4 mm, the device is essentially a miniaturized Michelson interferometer and it consists of a micro optical bench with beamsplitter, ball lenses, mirrors and the detector chip. The light beam is coupled in via a glass-fiber and an electromagnetic actuator. The signal is derived from the signal response of the detector by Fourier transformation. 

The position of ZPD (Zero Path Difference) is critical to the Fourier Transform calculation, since the algorithm assumes that the central burst in the interferogram is in fact the ZPD. However, due to the refractive index properties of the beamsplitter material, the ZPD is not at the same position for every wavelength measured. There are several ways to overcome these phase differences. The most common method is to use a correction factor, which is known as phase correction. This correction factor is calculated for every wavelength, based on a double sided interferogram, since this tends to minimize the effects of phase difference. In practice, most infrared spectrometers collect single sided interferograms, since this halves the mirror movement, and consequently the number of datapoints to be Fourier transformed. 

Detector elements need to be protected from the environment to work well. To this end an infrared transparent window, frequently made of the same material as the beamsplitter window, is placed just in front of the detector as is illustrated in Figure 2.26. Commonly used window materials include KBr and ZnSe. There are wires attached to the detector element that connect it to the instrument s electronics. The signal from the detector element passes through these wires and can be amplified, digitized, and then sent to a computer for Fourier transformation. 

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