Mitigating dispersive spectrometer size-performance limitations with HTVS optical components

Traditional spectrometer design requires trading off between resolution and throughput (two key parameters which define performance) and physical size. Increasing the internal beam diameter is the simplest method of improving the performance of an otherwise optimized spectrometer. Sadly, this increased beam size also directly translates into increased system volume, weight, and cost. Functional limitations on size (and thus performance) can also prevent spectroscopy from being used in applications where it would otherwise be a perfect fit. Tornado Spectral Systems’ (TSS) High Throughput Virtual Slit (HTVS) redefines the performance-size limit by replacing the traditional slit in a spectrometer, allowing for designs that exceed traditional limitations on size and performance. Spectrometers can be made smaller while maintaining performance or system performance can be increased without increasing spectrometer size. Dispersive spectrometer theory is presented and used to construct a simulation that evaluated spectrometer performance based on volume for a slit-only and HTVS enabled instrument. Results show that as long as detector height is a non-limiting factor, HTVS enabled spectrometers have the potential to outperform slit-only spectrometers by factors up to several at equivalent volumes.