TIME-RESOLVED FOURIER SPECTROSCOPY FOR ACTIVATED OPTICAL-MATERIALS

A low-cost add-on to commercial Fourier-transform spectrometers that h ave a continuously scanning Michelson interferometer has been develope d for high-resolution, broadband, time-resolved spectroscopy. A number of innovations have been implemented to enable near-IR, visible, and UV photoluminescence studies. These include error correction and norma lization of interferogram points to correct for laser intensity variat ions and missed shots, reduction of mirror-speed variations with recog nition and avoidance of the timing mistakes they cause, and simple whi te-light-interferogram advancement optics that leave high-frequency mo dulation efficiency for the signal of interest unchanged in dynamicall y aligned systems. Application to energy-transfer phenomena in solid-s tate-laser media is described. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America