The process and device for diagnosing the quality of compression of an ultrashort pulse, consist of performing an approximation of the Strehl ratio by: —a first step allowing the measurement of spatio-spectral images of the ultrashort light pulse brief initial (Ii) using one or more parallel imaging spectrometers; —a second step allowing an interaction of said pulse with a nonlinear optical material (DMNL), the aforementioned interaction generating, by a nonlinear optical mechanism of an n order, a secondary pulse (Is) of intensity proportional to the temporal intensity aforementioned ultrashort light pulse (Ii) raised to the power of n; —a third step allowing the measurement of the spatio-spectral image or images of the secondary pulse (Is); —the processing of the images thus obtained will be translated into an expression of the ratio of the maximum intensity obtained by that which could be obtained for the pulse without phase distortion.

An interference imaging device includes a light interference generator that includes: a light wave splitter configured to reflect a part of incident light and to allow a remaining part of the incident light to pass through; a phase modulator configured to modulate a phase of incident light that has passed through the light wave splitter; and a reflector configured to reflect the phase-modulated incident light from the phase modulator so that the reflected, phase-modulated incident light overlaps with incident light that has been reflected by the light wave splitter.

A spectrometry device wherein light rays emitted from an object face measurement point combine into one parallel light beam by an objective lens, this is divided into a first and second light beam by a phase shifter, and the first and second light beam emit toward a light-receiving face of a photodetector while providing an optical path length difference. A light-shielding plate is arranged on a face optically conjugate the object face respective to the objective lens, and only light passed through translucent portions of the light-shielding plate is directed to the objective lens. A lateral length of each light-shielding plate translucent portion and the interval between two adjacent translucent portions are based on the objective lens focal length, the distance from the phase shifter to the photodetector light-receiving face, a photodetector pixel pitch, a pixel length, and a predetermined wavelength range of the light emitted from the measurement point.

A frequency-measurement method uses a dual frequency-comb spectrometer as an optical wavemeter to measure the frequency of a reference laser that is used to frequency-stabilize the spectrometer. The method includes measuring a walking rate of center bursts in a sequence of interferograms recorded by the spectrometer, determining a number of teeth in each of a plurality of Nyquist windows formed by the dual frequency-comb spectrometer, and determining a Nyquist number of the one Nyquist window covering the laser frequency. The reference laser frequency can then be determined from the number of teeth in each Nyquist window, the Nyquist number, and the comb spacing of either one of the two frequency combs of the dual frequency-comb spectrometer. The reference laser frequency does not need to be measured with a separate wavemeter, or calibrated with respect to a known atomic or molecular transition.

A new spectral measurement technique is provided which enables measurement even if the light to be measured exists for a very short period. In one embodiment, a broadband pulsed light wave whose wavelength shifts temporally and continuously in a pulse interferes with a light wave to be measured. The intensity at each wavelength of the light wave to be measured is obtained using a Fourier transform of the output signal from a detector that has detected the intensity of the wave resulting from the interference. A laser beam from a laser source is converted to a supercontinuum wave by a nonlinear optical element, and a pulse extension element extends pulses of the supercontinuum wave, thus generating the broadband pulsed light wave.

A two-layer hybrid solid wedged etalon was fabricated and combined with a traditional imager to make a compact computational spectrometer. The hybrid wedge was made of Nb.sub.2O.sub.5 and Infrasil 302 and was designed to operate from 0.4-2.4 μm. Initial demonstrations used a CMOS imager and operated from 0.4-0.9 μm with spectral resolutions <30 cm.sup.−1 from single snapshots. The computational spectrometer operates similarly to a spatial Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer with spectral reconstruction using a non-negative least squares fitting algorithm based on analytically computed wavelength response vectors determined from extracted physical thicknesses across the entire two-dimensional wedge. This computational technique resulted in performance and spectral resolutions exceeding those that could be achieved from Fourier techniques. With an additional imaging lenses and translational scanning, the system can be converted into a hyperspectral imager.

Systems and methods which provide a high-throughput point source light coupling structure implementing a condenser configured according to one or more condenser configuration rules are described. Embodiments of a high-throughput point source light coupling structure utilize a birefringent plate configuration in combination with a condenser and point source to provide a light coupler structure for a birefringent-static-Fourier transform interferometer implementation. According to some examples, the optical axis of a first and second birefringent plate of a birefringent plate configuration are not in the same plane. A condenser of a high-throughput point source light coupling structure of embodiments is provided in a defined (e.g., spaced, relational, etc.) relationship with respect to the point source and/or a camera lens used in capturing an interference pattern generated by the light coupling structure. High-throughput point source light coupling structures herein may be provided as external accessories for processor-based mobile devices having image capturing capabilities.

A Fourier spectroscopic analyzer includes: a first light source that emits light including a wavelength component in a first wavelength band which is a wavelength band in which a spectrum of light passing through a sample is acquired and a wavelength component in a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band; a second light source that emits light including the wavelength component in the second wavelength band; an interferometer that acquires an interferogram which is coherent light from the light emitted from the first light source; a first light coupling optical system that couples light emitted from the second light source to at least one of light emitted from the first light source and the interferogram acquired by the interferometer; a light receiver that outputs a first light-reception signal acquired by receiving light including the wavelength component in the first wavelength band out of the wavelength components included in the light passing through the sample and a second light-reception signal acquired by receiving light including the wavelength component in the second wavelength band; and a signal processor that performs a Fourier transform process on the first light-reception signal and the second light-reception signal to acquire a spectrum of the wavelength component in the first wavelength band with noise removed therefrom.

An interference imaging device includes a light interference generator that includes: a light wave splitter configured to reflect a part of incident light and to allow a remaining part of the incident light to pass through; a phase modulator configured to modulate a phase of incident light that has passed through the light wave splitter; and a reflector configured to reflect the phase-modulated incident light from the phase modulator so that the reflected, phase-modulated incident light overlaps with incident light that has been reflected by the light wave splitter.

A method for adaptive dual frequency-comb spectroscopy includes repeatedly (i) recording a single interferogram with a dual frequency-comb spectrometer, (ii) averaging the single interferogram into an averaged interferogram, and (iii) determining a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the averaged interferogram, until the SNR of the averaged interferogram exceeds a SNR threshold. In certain embodiments, determining the SNR includes determining a signal amplitude of a center burst of the averaged interferogram and determining a noise level of the averaged interferogram from data points of the averaged interferogram located away from the center burst. In certain embodiments, determining the SNR includes Fourier transforming the averaged interferogram into a frequency spectrum and numerically integrating the frequency spectrum.