Demonstration of a dual-band IR imaging spectrometer

摘要

A prototype of a compact, low mass, multispectral imaging spectrometer suitable for space-based applications has been built utilizing a dual-band infrared focal plane array. The spectrometer design uses a grating blaze chosen to be efficient at both 3.75-6.05 and 7.5-12.1 μm. The spectrometer had previously been spectrally calibrated with flooded blackbody illumination and the mercury cadmium telluride focal plane array was found to have cutoff wavelengths near 5.2 and 10.5 μm. The spectrometer was tested in the MWIR band by imaging a blackbody at a distance of 100 m. Spectral images of the Sun were obtained in both MWIR and LWIR, allowing comparison of the solar diameter at various IR wavelengths with tabulated visual widths. The performance of the spectrometer is characterized at a deeper level as a result of these observations.