Disclosed is an instrument including a multipath, monolithic optical component, made up of a portion of a transparent material between two opposite faces of the component. One of the two faces of the component is formed by a first refracting surface, and the other face includes several second refracting surfaces which are juxtaposed. Each optical path of the component is formed by one of the second refracting surfaces in combination with a corresponding portion of the first refracting surface. One such component is suited for being part, within the instrument, of a detection module with multiple optical paths arranged in parallel, with a matrix photodetector shared by the optical paths. Such a detection module may be compact enough in order to be integrated into a cryostat cold screen, improving cooling thereof, and may be combined with an objective in order to form an instrument with multiple optical paths.

Aspects relate to a compact and low-cost gas analyzer that can be used for different types of gas analysis, such as air quality analysis. The gas analyzer can include a light source, a gas cell configured to receive a sample (e.g., a gas under test), a spectral sensor including a spectrometer and a detector, and an artificial intelligence (AI) engine. Light can enter the gas cell and interact with the sample to produce output light that may be measured by the spectral sensor. The resulting spectrum produced by the spectral sensor may be analyzed by the AI engine to produce a result. The gas analyzer further includes a self-calibration component configured to enable calibration of the sample spectrum to compensate for spectral drift of the spectral sensor.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

An optical filter may include an interference filter that passes at least two channels associated with at least two transmission peaks; and a plurality of blockers, wherein each blocker, of the plurality of blockers, passes a respective channel associated with a respective transmission peak of the at least two transmission peaks and blocks one or more channels other than the respective channel associated with the respective transmission peak.

The invention relates to a device for conducting radiation, a photodetector arrangement, and a method for spatially resolved spectral analysis.

A spectral sensor and a method for forming the spectral sensor is disclosed. The spectral sensor includes a planar waveguide on a substrate; a restriction mechanism that restricts a range of angles of incidence of light impinging onto the chirped input coupling grating; the chirped input grating formed to couple incident light into the planar waveguide, wherein the chirped input coupling grating comprises a first transverse chirp to provide a spectrally selective coupling of incident light Into the planar waveguide; a propagation region to filter out light that is not coupled into the planar waveguide; a detector array arranged on the opposite side of the propagation region from the chirped input coupling S grating to receive light coupled out of the planar waveguide and produce output signals representative of the light; and an electrical circuit to readout output signals from the detector array.

An optical element includes an optical block constructed of a first material having a % transmission of at least 50% throughout a spectral range of 300 nm to 2700 nm through at least a thickness of the optical block. The optical block comprises a surface. A grating layer constructed of a second material is disposed on the surface of the optical block, the grating layer comprising a first surface that is directly in contact with the surface of the optical block and a second surface comprising a plurality of diffraction features forming a diffraction grating.

An optical device and a spectral detection apparatus are provided. The optical device includes an optical waveguide, including: a polychromatic light channel configured to transport a polychromatic light beam, and provided with a light incident surface for receiving the incident polychromatic light beam at an input end of the polychromatic light channel; a chromatic dispersion device arranged downstream from the polychromatic light channel in an optical path and configured to separate the polychromatic light beam from the polychromatic light channel into a plurality of monochromatic light beams; and a plurality of monochromatic light channels arranged downstream from the chromatic dispersion device in the optical path and configured to respectively conduct the plurality of monochromatic light beams with different colors from the chromatic dispersion device. Monochromatic light output surfaces are respectively provided at output ends of the plurality of monochromatic light channels and configured to output the monochromatic light beams.

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) for determining a wavelength of an input signal is disclosed. The PIC comprises: a substrate; a first Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) disposed over the substrate, comprising first optical waveguides having a first optical path length difference, and configured to receive a first output optical signal from a light source. The PIC also comprises a second Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) disposed over the substrate, comprising second optical waveguides having a second optical path length difference, which is greater than the first optical path length difference, and configured to receive a second output optical signal from the light source.

A hyperspectral imaging apparatus based on a monolithic or free space optical spatial heterodyne spectrometer (SHS) design, array detector, electromagnetic radiation source, and optical collection element is described. The apparatus enables the simultaneous acquisition of spatially isolated Fizeau fringe patterns, each having an encoded light product that is decoded to produce a spectral fingerprint of the interrogated object. Features specific to the SHS, such as a large entrance aperture, large acceptance angle, and no moving parts, enable a variety of optical collection schemes including lens arrays, solid-core and hollow core waveguides, and others. In one example, a microlens array (MLA) is configured with the hyperspectral imaging apparatus to simultaneously image many hundred spatially isolated Fizeau fringe patterns while interrogating an object using an electromagnetic radiation source. Each Fizeau fringe pattern recorded by the array detector is decoded to produce a full Raman or laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) spectrum. Compared to prior art, the hyperspectral imaging apparatus overcomes the primary limitations of needing to trade time resolution for both spectral and spatial data density because the imaging apparatus simultaneously acquires both spectral and special information. Based on the selection and configuration of diffraction gratings, the grating aperture size, Littrow wavelength (i.e., heterodyne wavelength), and optical collection configuration, the apparatus can be tailored to produced low or high spectral resolution with a spectral bandpass that covers a portion or the entire Raman spectral range (up to 4200 cm.sup.−1) and for LIBS as well.