Characterizing the performance of a fast FT-IR imaging spectrometer

The noise sources present in fast FT-IR imaging instrumentation are analyzed in order to ascertain the limits of the quantitative ability of this technique. Methods to increase the quality of spectral and spatial information are presented. It is shown that a technique comparable to the coaddition of multiple mirror scans in standard FT-IR spectroscopy is able to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectral data obtained, and that the expected square root behavior is obeyed. A method of distinguishing real image features from artifacts is also presented.