Optical design of prism-grating-prism imaging spectrometers

Imaging spectrometers can provide imagery and spectrum information of objects and form so-called three-dimensional spectral imagery, two spatial and one spectral dimension. Most of imaging spectrometers use conventional spectroscopic elements or systems, such as reflective diffraction gratings, prisms, filters, spatial modulated interferometers, and so on. Here a special imaging spectrometer which is based on a novel cemented Prism-Grating-Prism (PGP) is reported. Its spectroscopic element PGP consists of two prisms and a holographic transmission volume grating, which is cemented between these prisms. The two prisms mainly function as beam deviation, the grating as a disperser. In addition to the high light efficiency of the volume gratings that is required for high spectral resolution, the cementing difficulty when surface relief gratings are used can be avoided due to its voluminal characteristic. The PGP imaging spectrometer has advantages of direct vision, dispersion uniform, compactness, low cost, and facility to be used. The principle, structure, and optimized design of the PGP imaging spectrometer are given in detail. Its front collimation optics and rear focusing lenses are same so as to reduce its cost further. The spectral coverage, resolution, and track length of the designed system are respectively visible light from 400nm to 800nm, 1.6nm/pixel, and 85mm. From its performance evaluation, it is shown that the PGP imaging spectrometer has the potentiality to be used in microscopic hyperspectral imagers and hyperspectral imaging remote sensors.