The hyperspectral imaging achieved by aberration-corrected freeform concave blaze grating with variable line spacing

Abstract

To design a concave grating for a hyperspectral imaging (HSI) system, it is critical to achieve flat field focusing in both the horizontal and vertical directions on the image sensor. We have developed a generalized automation aberration reduction procedure (ARP) that can be applied in any cases of a concave grating spectrometer. The concave grating, which has a free-form profile with blaze grating pitch and variable line spacing [3], is fabricated using five-axis CNC machine with nanometer machining precision for hyperspectral imaging. In order to evaluate the performance, an optical system is designed and setup to measure the focused spot size, spectral resolution and diffraction efficiency.