Fourier transform spectrometer using a multielement liquid crystal display

US6031609A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The Regents of the University of California · US

Inventors

• David J. Funk · Nortonville, US
• David Moore · Los Alamos, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 29, 1997
• Grant date: Feb 29, 2000
• Expiry date: May 29, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01J3/4531
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Fourier transform spectrometer using a multielement liquid crystal display. A ferroelectric liquid crystal mask is used as an optical encoder for a solid-state Fourier transform spectrometer. A 1.times.64 element array was striped and used as a 1.times.4 element device. The device intersected dispersed radiation and encoded each spectral component thereof with a carrier signal by applying half-wave potentials to each of the four striped (1.times.16) liquid crystal elements which varied the transmitted amplitude of the light from 0.03% to 28% of full scale. The light was spectrally recombined and imaged onto a photomultiplier and the resulting carrier frequencies (and their amplitudes) detected by Fourier transformation of the time-varying signal. Spectra of colored-glass filters were taken to demonstrate the spectrometer.