DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A VISIBLE-LIGHT FOURIER-TRANSFORM RAMAN SPECTROMETER

We demonstrate the feasibility of Fourier transform (FT) Raman spectro scopy with visible wavelength excitation through design, construction, and characterization of a visible-light FT-Raman spectrometer. Our mo tivation to explore this approach stemmed from the need for a versatil e Raman spectrometer for use in a confocal scanning laser Raman micros cope we built. We discuss the spectrometer design features which contr ibute to efficient and reliable microscope operation and evaluate the spectrometer performance on the basis of a series of measurements chos en because of their impact on confocal microscope function. The measur ements include the acquisition of representative Raman spectra from bo th solids and liquids, a demonstration of the independence of resolvin g power from input aperture diameter, the measurement of the absolute spectrometer optical efficiency curve, and an evaluation of the short- and long-term spectrometer noise processes.