Spectrometer with magnification
AssigneeBAE Systems Space & Mission Systems Inc.
InventorThomas Ulrich Kampe
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A longwave infrared imaging spectrometer is provided. The spectrometer includes a lens system that magnifies light within the spectrometer. The magnification internal to the spectrometer enables the use of a wider entrance slit for a given pixel pitch of a detector, which increases optical throughput as compared to designs requiring narrower entrance slits, while maintaining a high spectral resolution. The magnification applied within the spectrometer can be any value greater than 1.0.
Claims20
A spectrometer, comprising:
- an entrance slit;
- a lens system;
- a dispersing element;
- and
- a detector,
- wherein the lens system images light passed through the entrance slit onto the dispersing element,
- wherein the lens system images light dispersed by the dispersing element onto the detector, and
- wherein a dimension of the imaged light at the dispersing element is greater than a dimension of the image at the detector.
An optical sensor system, comprising:
- a telescope;
- and
- a magnifying spectrometer, including:
- an entrance slit, wherein light collected by the telescope is focused at the entrance slit;
- a dispersing element;
- a detector having a plurality of pixels disposed in an array;
- and
- a lens system, wherein light passed by the entrance slit is reimaged by the lens system onto a surface of the dispersing element, wherein light dispersed by the dispersing element is focused onto the array of pixels, wherein a diameter of the light reimaged onto the surface of the dispersing element is greater than a diameter of the light at the detector.
A method for obtaining spectrally resolved image, comprising:
- collecting light from an area of interest;
- passing the collected light through an entrance slit, wherein the entrance slit has a width that is equal to or greater than three times a selected wavelength;
- dispersing the light passed through the entrance slit;
- and
- reimaging the entrance slit at a focal plane of a detector, wherein a width dimension of the reimaged entrance slit at the focal plane of the detector is less than a width dimension of the entrance slit itself.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.