Multiaperture planar waveguide spectrometer formed by arrayed Mach-Zehnder interferometers

Concept, theory and simulations of a new type of waveguide device, a multiaperture Fourier-transform planar waveguide spectrometer, are presented. The spectrometer is formed by an array of Mach-Zehnder interferometers generating a wavelength dependent spatial fringe pattern at the array output. The input light spectrum is calculated using a discrete Fourier transformation of the output spatial fringes. The multiaperture input significantly increases the optical throughput (etendue) compared to conventional single input spectrometers. Design rules for the arrayed spectrometer are deduced from performance specifications such as wavelength range and spectral resolution. A design example with spectral resolution 0.025 nm and range 2.5 nm is presented, where the optical throughput is increased by a factor of 200 compared to a single input device. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.