The Fresnel Zone Light Field Spectral Imager

This thesis provides a computational model and the first experimental demonstration of a Fresnel zone light field spectral imaging (FZLFSI) system. This type of system couples an axial dispersion binary diffractive optic with light field (plenoptic) camera designs providing a snapshot spectral imaging capability. A computational model of the system was developed based on wave optics methods using Fresnel propagation. It was validated experimentally and provides excellent demonstration of system capabilities. The experimentally demonstrated system was able to synthetically refocus monochromatic images across greater than a 100nm bandwidth. Furthermore, the demonstrated system was modeled to have a full range of approximately 400 to 800nm with close to a 15nm spectral sampling interval. While images of multiple diffraction orders were observed in the measured light fields, they did not degrade the system\u27s performance. Experimental demonstration also showed the capability to resolve between and process two different spectral signatures from a single snapshot. For future FZLFSI designs, the study noted there is a fundamental design trade-off, where improved spectral and spatial resolution reduces the spectral range of the system