Real-time video imaging of gas plumes using a DMD-enabled full-frame programmable spectral filter

Programmable spectral filters based on digital micromirror devices (DMDs) are typically restricted to imaging a 1D line across a scene, analogous to conventional "push-broom scanning" hyperspectral imagers. In previous work, however, we demonstrated that, by placing the diffraction grating at a telecentric image plane rather than at the more conventional location in collimated space, a spectral plane can be created at which light from the entire 2D scene focuses to a unique location for each wavelength. A DMD placed at this spectral plane can then spectrally manipulate an entire 2D image at once, enabling programmable matched filters to be applied to real-time video imaging. We have adapted this concept to imaging rapidly evolving gas plumes. We have constructed a high spectral resolution programmable spectral imager operating in the shortwave infrared region, capable of resolving the rotational-vibrational line structure of several gases at sub-nm spectral resolution. This ability to resolve the detailed gas-phase line structure enables implementation of highly selective filters that unambiguously separate the gas spectrum from background spectral clutter. On-line and between-line multi-band spectral filters, with bands individually weighted using the DMD's duty-cycle-based grayscale capability, are alternately uploaded to the DMD, the resulting images differenced, and the result displayed in real time at rates of several frames per second to produce real-time video of the turbulent motion of the gas plume.