SBIR Phase I:Miniature Waveguide Rowland-Circle Spectrograph

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to perform research to design, fabricate, and test a new type, compact, high resolution, fiber optic spectrograph combining the Rowland geometry with a single mode optical channel waveguides and slab waveguide and with a curved, blazed echelle grating. Original Rowland design needs no intermediate collimating or focusing optics, has very high resolution, but suffers severe astigmatism in the third dimension, rendering it inapplicable for fiber optics. New design overcomes this deficiency by confining the light in the third dimension with a single mode optical waveguide. Two new blazed echelle gratings will be formed on the waveguide layer with reactive ion etching. Four fabricated spectrographs will be critically tested. Preliminary analysis indicates high resolution, high wavelength density, cost competitive with any current WDM devices. This technology's portability and fiber optic capability should permit many other applications besides WDM, including surveillance of trace explosives, and other molecules in vehicles, planes, and ships.