Multiscale snapshot imaging spectrometer with large FOV and fast speed

Abstract

A novel snapshot imaging spectrometer with large field-of-view (FOV) up to 100° is achieved by taking the advantages of a multiscale fore-optics and a compact Offner imaging spectrograph. Based on the diffraction imaging theory, the multiscale fore-optics composed of a monocentric spherical lens and multi-channel microlens array is designed, over which panchromatic images with small FOV are of uniform image quality. And identical imaging spectrographs with a dimension less than 30 cubic millimeters and with a high spectral resolution of about 2nm are designed correspondingly. The presented imaging spectrometer works at the visible wavelength range which is from 400nm to 780nm. It is of a fast speed about F/2.4 and a compact configuration of only 200mm×300mm×300mm in dimension. But the smile and keystone distortions are negligible.