Miniaturization of holographic Fourier-transform spectrometers

Wave propagation equations in the stationary-phase approximation have been used to identify the theoretical bounds of a miniature holographic Fourier-transform spectrometer (HFTS). It is demonstrated that the HFTS throughput can be larger than for a scanning Fourier-transform spectrometer. Given room- or a higher-temperature constraint, a small HFTS has the potential to outperform a small multichannel dispersive spectrograph with the same resolving power because of the size dependence of the signal-to-noise ratio. These predictions are used to analyze the performance of a miniature HFTS made from simple optical components covering a broad spectral range from the UV to the near IR. The importance of specific primary aberrations in limiting the HFTS performance has been both identified and verified.