Time-resolved Fourier spectroscopy for activated optical materials

A low-cost add-on to commercial Fourier-transform spectrometers that have a continuously scanning Michelson interferometer has been developed for high-resolution, broadband, time-resolved spectroscopy. A number of innovations have been implemented to enable near-IR, visible, and UV photolumi-nescence studies. These include error correction and normalization of interferogram points to correct for laser intensity variations and missed shots, reduction of mirror-speed variations with recognition and avoidance of the timing mistakes they cause, and simple white-light-interferogram advancement optics that leave high-frequency modulation efficiency for the signal of interest unchanged in dynamically aligned systems. Application to energy-transfer phenomena in solid-state-laser media is described.