Relevance of the Luminosity-Resolving Power Product for Spectroscopic Imaging

Abstract

The luminosity-resolving power products of several different types of modern spectrometric imaging and nonimaging systems have been compared. It is shown that if a narrow-band signal is detected in the presence of strong, spectrally continuous background, the luminosity-resolving power product is the critical figure of merit controlling the potential signal-to-noise ratio. Within a spectral resolving power range of 105–109, the signal-to-noise ratio that can be attained by atomic vapor detectors and filters, and by resonance ionization detectors in particular, can be 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than that for the best traditional spectroscopic approaches.