Why Chose a Fourier Transform Spectrometer

7/29/2019 Why Chose a Fourier Transform Spectrometer

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2WHY CHOOSE A FOURIER TRANSFORMSPECTROMETER?

What follows is a discuss ion of the merits of the Fourier transform spectrom eter(FTS) and why we, the authors, each separately made it our instrument of choice.

To put our work into perspective, together we have measured or supervised measurements of a few thou sand spectrum lines produced by prism s, a few m ore thousands from Fa bry-P erot interferometers, and several million produced by diffractiongratings, and have ourselves measured tens of millions produced by Fourier transform spectrometers.

An evaluation of the usefulness of any tool must begin with an understandingof the task it is expec ted to perform . Ou r area of interest is passive spectrom etry we expect to set up a source of light and analyze its output without disturbingthe source. We are practitioners of spectrometry in the region between 500 and 50000 cm~^ (200 and 20 000 nm), with an emphasis on obtaining high-resolution,broadband, and low-noise spectra.

Every spectrometer has an entrance aperture, focusing optics, a dispersingelemen t, and one or mo re detectors. T heir comparative usefulness is characterizedby the throughput (how much light passes through), chromatic resolving power(how close in energy two spectral features can be before they are indistinguishable),and free spectral range (how w ide a spectral range can b e viewed before two featuresof different wavelengths overlap in the spectral display). A block diagram mightlook like Fig. 2.1.

17


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18 2. Why Choose an FTS?

Source

Aperture Spectrometeror >S l i | / ^\ \l

DispersiveElement:PrismGratingFabry-PerotMichelson

Col l imat ing Lens

Focal7KTJK 'C a m era Lens

PrismSpectrometer

GratingSpectrometer

Fabry-PerotInterferometer

M i che l s o nInterferometer

Fig. 2 .1. Block diagram of spectrometer.

In this block diagram we have shown only lenses as the focusing elements,although in practice mirrors are used for almost all grating spectrometers andMichelson interferometers, and the optical path is folded back almost on itself.The FTS uses spherical mirrors at f-numbers typically between f/16 and f/50.Th e optical principles and practices are the same for both lenses and mirrors. Insimplified term s, slice a simple positive lens in half and put a reflecting coating onthe plane surface, and you have the equivalent of a concave (positive) mirror.

The job of the passive spectrometer is to gather spectral information from asource as rapidly and accurately as possible. We will consider in turn three aspectsof information flow: the quantity of information per unit time, the quality of thatinformation, and some vague sense of the cost of the information.2.1 Quantity

The m agnitude of information flow throu gh a spectrometer may be thought ofas the product of two q uantities, one determined by the spectrometer optics and theother by the detector:

information flow = (optical throug hput) x (detector acceptance).The o ptical throughp ut may be defined as the pro duct of the area A of the entranceaperture and the solid angle fi sub tended the re by the collimator, further multipliedby the optical efficiency rjo of the system:

optical throughput = AQrjo (2.1)


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2.1 Qu antity 19

Becau se of its axis of symm etry, the FTS interferometer has a large entrance apertureand, consequently, a large A^ product. A typical interferometer m ight have a 5-mm-diameter circular aperture.

Ano ther aspect of the quantity of data obtained is the fact that the FTS recordsdata at all frequencies simultaneously, a process called multiplexing. There is agreat saving in observation time when we wish to look at many frequencies, ascompared with scanning each frequency separately with a dispersive instrumentsuch as a diffraction grating.

To determine the role of the detector on the throughput, w e need to consider themod e of detection as well as the intrinsic properties of the detector. Let us combinethe effects of detector quantum efficiency and the noise into a useful hybrid, theeffective quantum sensitivity q, defined by:

q = [(5/ iV)ob served /(5/ iV)idea l] ' (2 .2)where {S/N)i^ea.\ is the signal-to-noise ratio that would result from a perfect detector, one w ith unit quantu m efficiency and no noise . W ith this concept, we definethe detector acceptance as

detector accep tance = (quantum sensitivity) x (numb er of detectors) = qn.The q uantum sensitivity can b e more usefully written as

^ NQ-^Nd'where Q is the actual quantum efficiency of the detector, A^ is the num ber ofphotons per measurement interval incident on the detector, and N^ is the numberof detected photons per measurement interval that it would take to produce theobserved detector noise (noise do esn 't always come from photo ns!). For largesignals, NQ > A^ and we obtain q ^ Q, while for small signals with NQ < Ndwe have instead q {NQ/Nd)Q, and this effective quan tum efficiency depends onall three qua ntities, but especially strongly on the real quan tum efficiency, w hich isnot usually specified by detector manufacturers.

Finally, there are the separate but related topics of spectral coverage and freespectral range as touched upon earlier. Some spectroscopic problems can be solvedby observing o nly a fraction of a wavenumber, while others require broad coverage,up to tens of thousands of wav enum bers. In the latter case, the am ount of spectrum


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that can be covered w ithout readjusting or changing c omp onents becom es a factorin the information flow. The FTS spectral coverage is Umited by the beamspUttermaterial, beamsplitter coatings, substrate transmission, and detector sensitivity.Wavelength ratios of 5 to 1 are achievable in a single scan, and ratios of 100 to 1are possible by switching beamsp litters or detectors or both, althoug h the switchingmay n ot be trivial.2.2 Quality2.2.1 Resolution an d Line Shape

Here w e are concerned w ith the resolution and cleanness of the apparatus function, the precisio n of the intensity and wav enum ber scales, and any possible sourcesof excess noise. The instrumental resolution is determined by the maximum pathdifference in the interfering beams. For major research instruments, this effectivemax imum p ath difference is typically 1 to 5 m, corresponding to a resolution of 0.01to 0.002 cm ~ ^. The absolute wavenumber accuracy of any spectrum can be madeto the same degree as the precision, providing there is a single standard line withwhich to set the waven umber scale. Standard lines nearly equally spaced throughout the spectral region are not required to set up an accurate scale. The subject ofcalibration is discussed further in Chapter 9. On th e other hand, many problems donot require the full resolution of such instruments. For these problems, it is usefulto have variable resolution, because excess resolution reduces the signal-to-noiseratio. The FTS is especially flexible in this regard and has no equ al in the ease ofsetting the instrumen tal resolution to the required v alue.

The accuracy in determining intensities ideally is limited only by photon statistics, but in practice there are many systematic effects that degrade performance.Some of these are apparatus function-smearing effects, which distort the shapes ofspectral lines, and nonlinearity and crosstalk in detecto rs, which create artifacts.

One of our main concerns is with line shapes. In the past, spectroscopyhas treated its two main variables very differently, being highly quantitative on thewavenumber axis but only quah tative on the intensity axis, largely because intensitymeasurements were difficult and unreliable. But accurate intensity information isincreasingly important in many areas: modeling stellar atmospheres, unravelingcomplex hyperfine structure patterns, ratioing or differencing spectra to see smalldifferential effects in the presence of large systematic effects, understanding non-voigtian line shapes, and so forth.


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22 Quality 21

In measuring intensities it is necessary to take into account the apparatus orinstrument function of the spectrometer, defined as the output response to a purelymonochromatic input.

A major part of the value of FTS data is that a broadban d interval of the spectrumcan be o bserved in single or multiple scans with the same instrument settings andthat the dispersion and the instrument line shape function are nominally the samefor every spectral line no matter where it lies in the range. The FTS h as aninstrument function whose frequency response is essentially flat out to the end ofthe interferogram, w here it drops suddenly to zero. All other instruments have aninstrument function that changes markedly with wavelength or wavenumber. Wewill discuss this function in a later chapter. In the me antim e, to illustrate oneprob lem , line shape errors quantified as the decrease in peak in tensity as a result ofthe instrument function are plotted in Fig. 2.2 as a function of resolution for boththe grating spectrom eter and the FT S.

If 1% line shape distortion is necessary, then an FT S w ith an optimum apertureas defined in Section 5.2 will require five resolution elements across a line width.In contrast, the grating w ith an optimum slit width w ill require 30 elemen ts across aline width. Th e factor of 6 in required resolving pow er is a large part of the practicaladvantage of an FTS.

Wavenumber accuracy can be a large and nettlesome subject, although in thebest of all possible w orlds it is limited only by photon noise. Und er these conditions,the uncertainty in position of a spectral line is roughly the line w idth divided by theproduct of the signal-to-noise ratio in the line and the square root of the numberof samples in the line width. For exam ple, a spectrum of N2O taken at NS O withthe 1-m FTS shows line widths of 0.01 cm~^ and SjN ratios of several thousand,resulting in wavenum bers with a root mean square (r.m.s.) scatter of 2 x 10~^cm~^ whe n com pared w ith values calculated from fitted m olecular param eters.Such precision is possible though not common in modem FTS work.

2 2 2 Fixed and Variable Quantities in ExperimentsTh ere is yet another way to assess spectrometer performance, in terms of the

obtainable signal-to-no ise ratio. Practically, there is a trade-off am ong signa l-to-noise ratio, spectral and spatial resolution, and measurement time, given the bestelectronics, detectors, and optics available.


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10.0

1.0

cO H

0.1

0.01

\ \ l\ \\ N1\\\\\\\\\ \\\\I\I (a)

(h )

\ (c)

5 10 20Resolution Elements per Line Width

50 100

Fig. 2.2 The amplitude distortion of a gaussian line by the FTS and a grating. Curve (a) gives thelimiting error for the FTS due tofinitepath difference alone when the aperture contribution is negligible;(b) shows the FTS error when the optimum aperture is used. Curve (c) is for a grating with an optimumslit.

All radiometric devices, including radiometers and interferometers, have common elements: an aperture of area A and solid angle fi, and optics to channelradiation to the detector. The devices differ in their methods of spectral separationand may be compared based on the signal-to-noise ratio within a narrow spectralinterval ACT that is the filter bandwidth for a radiometer or the spectral resolutionwidth for a spectrometer.

The noise equivalent power (NEP) is the signal power for a signal-to-noise ratioof unity and is the inverse of the detectivity D

NEP{W ) = D-\W-^) = D*1 An.

T '' (2.4)where Ad is the detector area, Af ^ 1/T is the effective bandwidth, whichis determined by the dwell or integration time T at each point, and D* is the


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22 Quality 23

detectivity in the detector-noise-limited regime. See Section 8.2.3 for comments onthe usefulness of D* .

The noise equivalent spectral radiance (NESR) describes the overall efficiencyand throughp ut of the instrument:

_ NEP((7) _ 1 lA p

where r/i is the system efficiency and r/2 is the optical efficiency, including thetransmission properties of the optical components. The spectral bandwidth is thespectral resolution ACT of the instrument, and the etendue (throughput) A^ is theproduc t of the collecting area and the solid angle describing the field of view.

The signal-to-noise ratio of the observation isS_ _ l{a) _ J((T)r;i7^2(^)A(7AnN ~ NESR(a) ~ NEP (a) (2.6)

or, including the detector characteristics (ap propriate for the infrared in the detec tor-noise-limited regim e),

S _ Iia)mV2ia)^aAnD*V f

Equation (2.7) leads to the conclusion that the best observations are obtained w henthe best detector is used (high D*), the integration time is long, the condensing opticsare fast (large Q), and the bandwidth (spectral resolution) ACT is large (minimumspectral resolution).

By rearranging Eq. (2.7) we can partition the instrument performance intoterms that are largely fixed and into those that are variable in the measurementdesign:

S/N _ rj,v,{a)AI{a)D*_ ^^.8)AanVf y/A^

Th e right-hand side is essentially constant. System and optical efficiencies arealways optimized and constrained by m aterial properties, the aperture is as large asphysically possible , the specific intensity is determined by the source and the spectralresolution required, and the detector performance is determined by its inherentproperties. To gain a factor of 2 improvement requires significant investments oftime and money.


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On the other hand, the left-hand side is flexible in trading off one propertyfor another. The required signal-to-noise ratio can be achieved by many differentcombinations of the three parameters in the denominator. These parameters arethe spectral resolution, the spatial resolution or solid angle or field of view, andthe observing time. We can view these parameters as axes of a three-dimensionalspace, as shown in Fig. 2 .3.

Photometer (S/N)/T*'^

Narrow BeamRadiometer (camera)

1/ Q

Fig. 2.3. A three-dimensional space representing the trade-off space in which instrument designs areoptimized . The product of the three coordinates rep resenting any instrum ent m ust have a fixed valuedetermined by the right-hand side of Eq. (2.8).

Narrow-beam radiometers using camera systems emphasize angular resolution at the expense o f spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. In contrast,photometers trade off spectral resolution and so lid angle to obtain the best possible signal-to-noise ratio in a given time interval. Finally, high spectral resolutionrequires comprom ises on the angular resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. As experimenters largely interested in high-quality spectra, we have had the luxury ofpractically infinite integration times and correspondingly have designed instrumentswith high spectral resolution and small field of view.2.3 Cost

One concern is with the resources required to perform useful spectrometry,including not just capital outlay, but the time used in understanding and becomingfamiliar with the equipment, m aintaining and extending it, and handling the datathat justify the whole apparatus in the first place. There is a widespread feelingthat grating instruments are cheap and simple and that an FTS is complex andexpensive, and to some extent this is true. But the instruments being visualizedwhen such comparisons are made are usually vastly different in power. The most


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2.4 Summary 25

challenging problems are handled not with, say, a 1-m Ebert-Fastie spectrographwith photographic recording, but with 10-m-class multiple-passed scanning gratingsor an echelle crossed w ith a grating and having a two-dimen sional spectral display,and not with a simple single Fabry -Pero t etalon, but with multiple-etalon systems.However it is accomplished, high-precision spectrometry is expensive in the timeof experts as well as in capital.

It is easy to igno re the cost of data reduction, but this can be a real mistake. Aninstrument is built once but used many times to obtain data. The natural output ofan FTS after a straightforward numerical transform is a set of numbers representingthe intensities on a linear scale, at a set of points equidistant in wavenumber.Com puter program s exist that operate directly on such records, producing plots andlists of spectral line parameters almost automatically and ma king it possible to dealwith spectra of quite remarkable complexity. The impo rtance and value of suchcapability canno t be overemph asized. Furtherm ore, the required compu tationalpower, including that needed to perform the numerical transform, is readily availableon personal computers.

2.4 SummaryTo put these com parisons in perspective, we can take several practical cases of

spectra we wish to measure and discuss which instrument we might choose.Consider fluorescent lamps, which come with several different colors as seen

by the eye wh ite, blue, red, etc., with no radiation outside the visible spectrum.Suppose you wanted to make a quick comparison of the color content of each.Simply look at the lamp with a hand-held prism sp ectroscope. To get a moreprecise evaluation, try a spectrometer with a 60-degree prism of base size 75 m m, adispersion index of 50, with f/16 optics. The resolving powe r is 7500 (0.1 nm) . Itproduces a single spectrum, with the visible region covering about 20 mm and nooverlapping of spectral regions.

To look at the same lamps with a resolution large enough to resolve the mercuryyellow lines at 577 and 579 nm, try a grating of 50-mm width used in a Littrowmounting (equal angles of incidence and diffraction) with f/5 optics - a 1/4 meterscanning mono chroma tor, available comm ercially. It has a maximu m theoreticalresolving power of 200 000 at 500 nm. Since resolving power is most often usedas the basis for com parison, rememb er that it is expressed as

R = (order of interference) x (number of grating g rooves) = mN


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or using the grating, because R = mN = (dsin 6/X){W/d) = l ^ s i n 0/X, thenumber of wavelengths that will fit into the maximum path difference betweenrays diffracted from opposite ends of the grating. In practice the resolving poweris far less than that theoretically possible because the spectrum is observed inthe first order for simplicity of data reduction, and the range of groove spacingsavailable is limited - representative values are 300/mm, 600/mm, 1200/mm. Theslit width also affects the resolving power. To put in some n um bers, consider theinstrument just m entioned, used in the first order with a 50-m m-w ide grating having600 grooves/mm . The theoretical resolving pow er is 30 000 , but with a typical 5-micron sUt it is reduced to 20 000. The yellow lines are easily resolved. There isno overlapping of orders because of the restricted range of visible radiation. Thewidth of the visible spectrum is 50 m m, and a typical scan m ight take 3 minutes.

Now try ob serving the mercury green line (also present in a fluorescent lamp)with a Fabry-Perot interferometer for the purpose of examining the central linestructure in detail, where a resolving power of 800 000 is needed. A Fabry-Perotinterferometer with a spacing of 7 mm, a reflectance of 90%, and f/16 optics has aresolving power of 800 000 and a free spectral range of 1.5 c m " , or 0.05 nm . Herethe resolving power R = (order of interference)(equivalent number of interferingbeams) = {2t/X)NR, where NR is the finesse, about 30 for a reflectance of 90%. Inthis case a narrow band filter of width 1.5 cm"^ is required to isolate the line fromthe background radiation. An auxiliary dispersing spectrometer (grating or prism)is often used for this purpose, such as the 1/4 meter monochromator describedearlier.

When we wish to observe the entire lamp spectrum in great detail, includingthe hyperfine structure in the green line, we can use an FTS with a maximumpath difference of 200 mm , which gives a resolving power of 800 000 . Thepath difference of 200 mm is 30 times the plate separation in the Fabry-Perotinterferometer, but in return there is not the same limitation on the free spectralrange. The limit depends on the sampling frequency of the electronics and the speedof the moving m irror. A typical value of spectral range is 10 000 cm ~^, or 250nm. A single scan might take 2 minutes. Th e resolution can be changed by simplychanging the value of the maximu m path difference. The same FTS can be changedfrom a low-resolution to a high-resolution spectrom eter on dem and, from a "quicklook" instrument to observe changes in spectra with changing source conditionsalmost in real time to a high-resolution maxim um signal-to-noise instrument. Itsflexibility in this regard is unequaled.


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2.4 Summary 27

Each of the three systems grating, Fab ry-P erot, and FTS occupies a usefulniche in the overall scheme of spectroscopy.

Broadband spectra of modest quality are most simply and cheaply obtained bythe grating with photog raphic or CCD recording , at least in the visible and UV. Thissystem is also the most tolerant of source intensity variation. Echelle spectrographswith array detectors bring at least an order of magnitude improvement in quantityof data gathered with a diffraction grating and in digital data processing. How ever,at high resolution they reproduce line shapes and positions with only m odest accu racy, owing to optical aberrations and nonlinearities in dispersion. Data red uctionand analysis initially require a minimum of computation to get a first look at thespectrum, but the extra computations required to convert wavelengths to w avenum-bers, fit the spectral lines, and construct atlases are time consuming and full ofpitfalls. A typ ical spectrum might consist of 20 successive echelle orders, each w itha variable dispersion w ithin an order, and a changing dispersion from order to order.The data are in wavelengths rather than w avenumbers and consequently require anextra comp utation to get the energies of levels. The num ber of samples in eachspectral line must be much large r than for FTS data to get accurate fits for position,intensity, shape, width, and area, and even then the lines are always asymm etricalin shape. W hen constructing atlases, each order must be interpolated to the sam edispersion linear in w avenumber, and then the orders must be trimmed and shiftedto match each one with the preceding and succeeding ones. These comp utationsare all doab le, but not trivial.

High-resolution and com pact size are the strong points of the Fabr y-P erot interferometer, though it is restricted to problems that need only a small free spectralrange and are tolerant of apparatus function smearing. The FTS is the system ofchoice in the infrared under almost any conditions (with or without a multiplexadvantage) and in the visible and UV when high accuracy is required in intensity,line shape, or wavenumber.

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Why Chose a Fourier Transform Spectrometer