A new heterodyne tandem-interferometer for fully interferometric three-dimensional imaging spectrometry

We have studied a method to obtain both three-dimensional (3-D) spatial information and spectral information of a usual polychromatic object by a fully passive interferometric technique that is strongly coupled with digital signal processing1- 6. Our method can be used for a vast range of wavelengths, because no special imaging devices, such as lenses, are required. In addition, coherent light sources are not necessary. A hyperbolic-type volume interferogram6 is one type of the volume interferogram, which is used for retrieve the object information, and an interferometer to measure directly this volume interferogram has been introduced3. This paper introduces a method to measure the hyperbolic-type volume interferogram with high sensitivity in fully interferometric 3-D imaging spectrometry. This is accomplished by coupling of interferometer to measure directly the hyperbolic-type volume interferogram and heterodyne detection system7 for broadband light. We also report a preliminary experimental result based on the interferometer to measure directly the hyperbolic-type volume interferogram.