Acousto-optic tunable filters in imaging applications

We examine various physical characteristics of current-art acousto-optic tunable filters (AOTFs) for spectrally filtered imaging applications. Imaging spectroscopy, where the goal is to obtain simultaneously spatial and spectral information, is a topical application that effectively utilizes the attractive features of the AOTF. Key measures of performance include image blur, relative contribution from sidelobes, contribution from background illumination, broadband scattering and diffraction efficiency.