INFRARED INTERFEROMETER WITH NO MOVING PARTS

THE PROPOSED NOVEL INFRARED SPECTROMETER WITH NO MOVING PARTS USES WAVEFRONT DIVISION AND THEN WAVEFRONT SUPERPOSITION TO GENERATE A SPATIALLY EXTENDED INTERFEROGRAM WHICH CAN BE COMPLETELY DETECTED SIMULTANEOUSLY USING A LINEAR ARRAY OF DETECTORS. THIS INTERFEROGRAM CAN BE DETECTED AND TRANSFORMED INTO THE SOURCE SPECTRUM IN PSEUDO REAL TIME. IF THE MOST ADVANCE FPA, COMPUTER, AND ALGORITHMS ARE EMPLOYED, A CONCEPTUAL DESIGN WILL PRODUCE 500 TO 1,000 SPECTRA PER SECOND. THIS DEVICE CONCEPT HAS BEEN DEMONSTRATED IN THE VISIBLE SPECTRUM USING AN EG&G RETICON 1024 ELEMENT PHOTODIODE ARRAY IN TWO OPTICAL CONFIGURATIONS. THE PROPOSED EFFORT IS TO APPLY THIS CONCEPT TO THE INFRARED REGION OF 8-14 MICROMETERS IN WAVELENGTH WHERE DETECTION OF CHEMICAL EFFLUENCE HAS SHOWN MOST PROMISE. SPECIFICALLY, (1) SEVERAL CANDIDATE OPTICAL CONCEPTS WILL BE COMPARED WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF CHEMICAL DETECTION AT A DISTANCE, (2) A CONCEPTUAL DESIGN USING THE MOST APPLICABLE OPTICAL APPROACH WILL BE PRODUCED FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT DURING PHASE II, (3) ASSEMBLE AND TEST A "BENCH" TYPE SYSTEM TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE CONCEPTUAL DESIGN IN THE LWIR.