Double-filtering method based on two acousto-optic tunable filters for hyperspectral imaging application

A hyperspectral imaging system was demonstrated based on two acousto-optic tunable filters (AOTFs). Efficient regulation of the incoherent beam was executed by means of the wide-angular regime of Bragg diffraction in the birefringent materials. A double-filtering process was achieved when these two AOTFs operated with a central wavelength difference. In comparison with the single-filtering method, the spectral bandwidth was greatly compressed, giving an increment of 42.02% in spectral resolution at the wavelength of 651.62 nm. Experimental results and theoretical calculations are basically identical. Furthermore, the sidelobe was found to be suppressed by the double-filtering process with the first order maximum decreased from -9.25 dB to -22.35 dB. The results indicated high spectral resolution and high spectral purity were obtained simultaneously from this method. The basic spectral resolution performance was examined with a didymium glass by this configuration. We present our experimental methods and the detailed results obtained.