Coded Aperture Techniques for High-Throughput Imaging Spectroscopy

We propose the use of programmable, two-dimensional (2D) coded apertures for high-throughput imaging spectroscopy. Spatially-varying, 2D, transmissive or reflective encoded mask, such as a hadamard or bernoulli random matrix, can be leveraged to realize high-throughput variants of many standard imaging spectroscopy techniques with throughput enhancements surpassing 50-100x compared to slit-based systems. In addition, recent advances in fast-switching spatial light modulators enable the reprogramming of mask encoding on the millisecond timescale. The combination these two technologies enables a wide array of potential innovations for hyperspectral imaging systems offering high-throughput, compressive measurement, with significant operational-flexibility. In this proposal, we target the application of these techniques to the development of a high-throughput, pushbroom imaging spectrometer for planetary science applications.