Miniature, sub-nanometer resolution Talbot spectrometer

Miniaturization of optical spectrometers has a significant practical value as it can enable compact, affordable spectroscopic systems for chemical and biological sensing applications. For many applications, the spectrometer must gather light from sources that span a wide range of emission angles and wavelengths. Here, we report a lens-free spectrometer that is simultaneously compact (<0.6  cm³), of high resolution (<1  nm), and has a clear aperture (of 10×10  mm). The wavelength-scale pattern in the dispersive element strongly diffracts the input light to produce non-paraxial mid-field diffraction patterns that are then recorded using an optimally matched image sensor and processed to reconstruct the spectrum.