Ultra-compact dual band imaging spectrometer with freeform prisms

Abstract

Wide spectrum and miniaturization are the main challenges in the imaging spectrometer design. In this paper, we propose an ultra-compact dual band imaging spectrometer (CDBIS) with cemented freeform prisms, which works at both the visible-near-infrared (VNIR) from 400 nm to 1000 nm and the shortwave-infrared (SWIR) from 1000 nm to 1700 nm. The imaging spectrometer is only composed of three cemented prisms, a primary prism and two triangular prisms. And a freeform surface characterized by the Zernike polynomial is introduced in each prism. The CDBIS is dispersed by a diffraction grating, which is designed on the second surface of the primary prism. Based on vector aberration theory (VAT), the relationship among the astigmatism generated by the introduced freeform surfaces, the wavelength, and the field of view is studied. Accordingly, a wideband is realized by introducing the freeform surfaces after the diffraction grating. Furthermore, through optimizing the coefficients of Zernike polynomial terms, residual astigmatism at different wavelengths is well balanced. An imaging spectrometer with a volume of only 100cm3 is obtained, with a spectral resolution of 1.45 nm at VNIR and 2.40 nm at SWIR, respectively. It has a huge potential for broadband space exploration.