The invention relates to an interferometer which can be used in a Fourier transform spectrometer to measure the spectral characteristics of a light emitting device, in particular a display. The interferometer and the Fourier transform spectrometer both can be used for imaging and/or non imaging applications.

Such a Fourier transform spectrometer is, for example, known from D. Fletcher Holmes and A. Howey, "Birefringent Fourier Transform Imaging Spectrometer", SPIE 4816, 46, 2002 or WO 2004/005870 wherein a Fourier transform spectrometer is disclosed which is illustrated in figure 1, compris¬ ing a first polarizer 1 , a first Wollaston prism 3, a second Wollaston prism 5, a second polarizer 7, a lens 9 and an imaging detector 11. The elements are sequentially arranged on an axis 13. One of the Wollaston prisms is moveably arranged so that its position perpendicular to the axis 13 can be altered. Such a spectrometer is less sensitive to vibrations than the classi¬ cal Michelson interferometer.

Such a state of the art spectrometer functions in the following way. Light from a light emitting object, e.g. a display is polarized by the polarizer 1 and then enters the first Wollaston prism 3 such that an ordinary and an ex¬ traordinary beam is created which are travelling through the Wollaston prisms at different speed, thereby creating a phase shift. Due to refraction the beams get split and leave the first Wollaston prism under different an¬ gles. After having travelled through the second Wollaston prism both rays are again parallel to each other, but spatially separated, and leave the sec¬ ond Wollaston prism 5 under the same angle α, under which it has entered the first Wollaston prism. After having travelled through the second polarizer 7, extracting the common polarization of the two rays, they can interfere with each other. The lens 9 is used to focus both rays onto the imaging de¬ tector where an interference pattern can be detected. The advantage of this kind of use of the described arrangement is that independent of how the rays enter the two prisms 3,5, the rays get out of the Wollaston prisms 3,5 under the same angles.

This spatially extended interference pattern can then be analysed by carry¬ ing out a Fourier transform to obtain spectral information about the light en¬ tering the device. To carry out the Fourier transform it is necessary to de¬ termine for each resolved measured intensity of the interference pattern the corresponding phase shift. This can practically be achieved only for light entering the device in a parallel way or with a small angle of view, which is of the order of 5°. Due to this reduced angle of view, the sensitivity of the device is not optimised, as by the field of view reduction the amount of light entering the device is reduced.

Furthermore by moving one of the Wollaston prisms relative to the axis 13 the interference pattern, detected by the detector 11 , changes. By measur¬ ing and storing a predetermined number of interference patterns for differ¬ ent positions of the movable Wollaston prism a Fourier transform can be calculated for each pixel of the imaging detector, and thus this form of spec¬ trometer can also be used as an imaging spectrometer to characterize the spectra of an entire display, by creating a spectral image.

in this case the phase shift introduced between the two rays is a function of the Wollaston wedge angles, the difference in refractive index for the ordi¬ nary and extraordinary ray inside the birefringent material used, and of the change in relative position of the movably arranged Wollaston prism. In addition to the phase shift due to the translation of the Wollaston prism, there is a further phase shift in case of a non-normal angle of incidence. The angular dependence is usually of a hyperbolic form. As a result the zero phase shift position varies hyperbolically. Thus the origin of each inter- ferogram is dependant on the position of the pixel of the detector.

The zero phase shift position needs to be known to be able to carry out the Fourier transform for the pixels of the detector on which the spectral analy¬ sis is going to be performed. With a state of the art imaging spectrometer it is thus necessary to perform a calibration to identify for each pixel the of the movable Wollaston with respect to the axis at which zero phase shift is achieved. Only then the interferograms can be measured and analysed. In practice this is a time-consuming process and furthermore, due to the pres¬ ence of numerous fringes in the pattern, relatively difficult to carry out.

One way to overcome this problem is, like described above, to reduce the field of view of the spectrometer, however, thereby intensity and information about the light emitting object is lost. Furthermore in order to let extraordi¬ nary and corresponding ordinary rays interfere with each other, after having passed through the second polarizer, a lens is needed to recombine the laterally shifted beams onto one pixel.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to improve the angular ac¬ ceptance of the interferometer and the Fourier transform spectrometer and to facilitate at the same time the calibration of the interferometer and the Fourier transform spectrometer.

This object is solved with the interferometer according to claim 1.

Thus in total 2n, with n being a natural number larger than 1 , polarizing beam splitters are provided and placed in a polarized light beam such that the light enters the first polarizing beam splitter of the first n polarizing beam splitters and leaves the last polarizing beam splitter of the second n polarizing beam splitters to be detected by the light sensitive detector. Furthermore the first n birefringent beam polarizing beam splitters are configured and arranged such that due to birefringence and refractive effects the light beam entering the interferometer is split into a first and a second beam, and leaves the last polarizing beams splitter (the nth) in parallel and spaced from each other at a first distance.

The second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters are configured and ar¬ ranged such that again due to birefringence and refractive effects the two beams leave the last polarizing beams splitter again parallel, but spaced from each other at a second distance, being smaller than the first one.

By moving the at least one polarizing beam splitter perpendicular to the axis on which the polarizing beams splitters are arranged a position can be found for which the interference pattern shows a minimum amount of fringes, in particular no fringes, which is due to the at least partial compen¬ sation of the phase shifts, of the two beams with respect to each other, cre¬ ated by the first n polarizing beams splitters by the phase shift created by the second n polarizing beam splitters. This position is achieved for a sym¬ metrical arrangement of the 2n polarizing beam splitters with respect to the light path, that is, they are all arranged in a line on the axis.

With the successive arrangement of the polarizing beam splitters, the un¬ wanted effect that each interferogram has a varying origin depending on the position with respect to the axis, can therefore be reduced. Thus the range in which the origin has to be looked for, can be reduced.

Furthermore, as the different origins are now closer together it is also pos¬ sible to increase the angular acceptance and thus the field of view of the interferometer. By scanning the at least one of the polarizing beam splitters, changing inter- ferograms can be measured by the detector, from which a spectral analysis can be carried out using Fourier transformation.

Advantageously the 2n birefringent polarizing beams splitters can be con¬ figured such that the first and second beams leave the nth polarizing beam splitter and the last polarizing beam splitter under essentially the same an¬ gles as the polarized beam enters the first polarizing beam splitter. In this case the second half of the polarizing beam splitters can have a similar structure to the first half, with the difference being that the shifts created in the first and second half shall have opposite sign, so that the compensation of the phase shifts in the second half of the polarizing beam splitters can be further optimised.

Preferably, at least one polarizing beam splitter is a Wollaston prism and even more preferably each polarizing beam splitter is a Wollaston prism. Usually Wollaston prisms have mutually orthogonal optical axes, however in the scope of the invention a deviation from this fact is possible. The wedge angle of the Wollaston prisms can be obtained out of a balanced choice tak¬ ing into account the amount of phase shift one wants to achieve with a cer¬ tain change in position of the at least one movably arranged Wollaston prism. The larger the wedge angle the larger the phase shift observed, but in this case also the overall size of the Wollaston prisms needs to be larger. Furthermore the larger the difference in refractive index of the ordinary and the extraordinary rays, the smaller the wedge angle can be chosen.

Any birefringent material can be used to build the Wollaston prisms, how¬ ever, the most commonly used are magnesium fluoride, calcite, potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP), ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADPp), quartz or LiNbO3. The use of Wollaston prisms is in particular advanta¬ geous due to their high dispersive properties with respect to the extraordi- nary and ordinary rays. However, also Senarmont or Rochon type prisms may be used.

Advantageously the Wollaston prisms of the first n polarizing beam splitters are made out of a same birefringent material and the Wollaston prisms of the second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters are made out of a same birefringent material. This will keep the structure of the interferometer sim¬ ple, in particular when all Wollaston prisms are made out of the same mate¬ rial.

According to a further preferred embodiment the interferometer can fur¬ thermore comprise at least one polarization plane changing means, in par¬ ticular a half wave plate. Advantageously a polarization plane changing means can be placed on the axis such that the first n Wollaston prisms are to one side of the polarization plane changing means and the second n Wol¬ laston prism are to the other side of the polarization changing means. As a half wave plate turns the polarization plane by 90° the interferometer can further be improved as, in order to better compensate the phase shift cre¬ ated in the first half, the Wollaston prisms of the second half can have the same structure, e.g. the same material, wedge angle and thickness, and arrangement as the first half of the Wollaston prisms.

In a further preferable embodiment the first n Wollaston prisms can be made out a first birefringent material and the second n Wollaston prisms can be made out of a second birefringent material having birefringent prop¬ erties of opposite sign compared to the first one. The differences in bire¬ fringent properties can be advantageously used to enable the compensation of the occurring phase shifts for at least one position of the at least one movably arranged polarizing beam splitter without using a half wave plate. This is as, actually, in one half of the Wollaston prisms the phase shift cre¬ ated between ordinary and extraordinary rays will be positive and in the other half the phase shift created will be negative and therefore the phase shifts can compensate each other at least partially. In the case that the ab¬ solute value of the difference in the refractive index between the ordinary and the extraordinary ray is not identical for the two materials, the wedge angles and thicknesses of the prisms with negative birefringent material need to be optimised such that the induced phase shift corresponds, at least partially, (with opposite sign) to the phase shift arising due to the wedge angle of the positive refractive materials.

According to a preferable embodiment for which n=2, the wedge angles of the 1st (the first of the first n Wollaston prisms) and 3rd (the first of the sec¬ ond n Wollaston prisms) Wollaston prisms can be essentially the same and the wedge angles of the 2nd (the last of the first n Wollaston prisms) and 4th (the last of the first n Wollaston prisms) Wollaston prisms can be essentially the same with respect to the axis, and, in particular, the absolute value of all angles can be essentially the same with respect to the axis. Using Wol¬ laston prisms of this type has the advantage that to the one hand phase shift compensation is further improved due to symmetry and to the other hand the fabrication of the prisms is facilitated.

Advantageously the light sensitive detector can comprise a plurality of pix¬ els, in particular in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional manner, for de¬ tecting a spatially extended interference pattern. Such an interferometer can thus at the same time measure interference effects for different spatial positions which can advantageously be used to characterize the spectral properties of a whole display, or the like, which is, in particular, useful for imaging. For a non imaging application also a zero dimensional detector like a photodiode can be used

The object of the invention is furthermore achieved with an interferometer according to claim 10. In comparison with the interferometer according to claim 1 , the polarizing beam splitters of the interferometer according to claim 10 do not have to be movably arranged, however at least one polarizing beam splitter is dis¬ placed with respect to the axis, such that an interferogram with fringes is observable with the light sensitive detector.

Furthermore the first n birefringent beam polarizing beam splitters are configured and arranged such that due to birefringence and refractive effects the light beam entering the interferometer is split into a first and a second beam, and leaves the last polarizing beams splitter (the nth) in parallel and spaced from each other at a first distance.

The second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters are configured and ar¬ ranged such that again due to birefringence and refractive effects the two beams leave the last polarizing beams splitter again parallel, but spaced from each other at a second distance, being smaller than the first one.

Furthermore the second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters are config¬ ured and arranged such that in the direction being perpendicular to the axis along which the beam splitters are arranged and being perpendicular to the direction in which the at least one polarizing beam splitter is displaced with respect to the axis no interference fringes are produced. This is achieved by a compensation, with respect to this direction, of the phase shifts created in the first n polarizing beam splitters by the phase shift created in the second n polarizing beam splitters

Due to the proposed arrangement of the polarizing beam splitters and the compensation of phase shifts in one direction the angular dependency of the phase shift in the direction perpendicular to the axis and perpendicular to the direction in which the splitter is displaced is small, and therefore the angular acceptance can be enhanced compared to the state of the art inter¬ ferometer. Thus the field of view can be increased. This interferometer, for which one polarizing beam splitter has been put out of symmetry to create a certain quantity of phase shift dependency, can ad¬ vantageously be used to extract spectral information in the case of a punc¬ tual source analysis using a one or two dimensional detector or in the case of a slit part of an extended source using a two dimensional detector.

The interferometer can furthermore be realised according to any of the above mentioned advantageous embodiments of the interferometer accord¬ ing to claim 1 or according to any combination thereof.

The invention furthermore relates to a Fourier transform spectrometer ac¬ cording to claim 11 , comprising the above-described interferometer and a means for carrying out a Fourier transform. The Fourier transform spec¬ trometer comprising the inventive interferometer thus takes advantage of the fact that the zero phase shift position of the at least one movably ar¬ ranged polarizing beam splitter can be easily obtained. In addition thanks to the higher angle of view the sensitivity of the Fourier transform spectrome¬ ter is enhanced.

Advantageously the Fourier transform spectrometer can furthermore com¬ prise means for storing the interferences obtained for a plurality of different positions of the at least one movably arranged birefringent beam splitter. Thus following the acquisition of a predetermined number of interference patterns as a function of the position of the at least one movably arranged polarizing beam splitter, the Fourier transform and thus the spectrum of a light source, like for example a display, can be obtained in a less compli¬ cated way.

According to an advantageous embodiment the Fourier transform spec¬ trometer can comprise a light sensitive detector with a plurality of pixels, in particular in a one-dimensional or two-dimensional manner, for detecting a spatially extended interference pattern. Furthermore the means for carrying out a Fourier transform can be configured such that the Fourier transform is determined for at least two pixels, in particular one in a centre region of the light sensitive detector and at least one in an edge region of the light sensi¬ tive detector. With this Fourier transform spectrometer, imaging can be car¬ ried out such that spectral information obtained for the different locations can be compared with each other, in view of identifying for example the quality of a display.

The invention further relates to a method for calibrating a Fourier transform spectrometer as described above which comprises the step of moving the at least one movably arranged polarizing beam splitter to a different position until a minimum amount of fringes, in particular no fringe, is detected by the light sensitive detector. This position corresponds to the origin of the Fou¬ rier transform used to extract spectral information. As the arrangement with the 2n birefringent polarizing beam splitters, n being a natural number greater than 1 , allows to at least partially compensate the phase shift cre¬ ated by the first n birefringent polarizing beam splitters, by the phase shift created due to the second n birefringent polarizing beams splitters and that furthermore an additional phase shift can be created by moving the at least one movably arranged polarizing beam splitter with respect to the axis on which the components are arranged, there will be at least one position for which the amount of fringes is minimum.

The Fourier transform spectrometer according to the invention comprising the inventive interferometer can be used for analysing a punctual light source or an extended light source at finite or infinite distance. In the case the Fourier transform spectrometer comprises a further imaging optical sys¬ tem, the later can be placed before or after the interferometer. As the Fou¬ rier transform spectrometer has an enhanced field of view all kinds of light sources can be analysed in an imaging or non-imaging mode. The invention also relates to an interferometer according to claim 16. With this arrangement similar advantages to ones described above are also achieved, in particular concerning the embodiments related to imaging inter¬ ferometers. Indeed to achieve the object of the invention it is necessary to reduce the amount of fringes such that the origin for each interferogram can be easily identified. Thus if the 2n polarizing beam splitters are configured and arranged such that at least for a part of incidence angles of the incident light beams the compensation criteria is satisfied, the reduction in amount of fringes is achieved. The detector is arranged such that it can detect the fringes and thus is positioned on the optical axis of the system.

By moving the at least one polarizing beam splitter perpendicular to the axis on which the polarizing beams splitters are arranged, a position can be found for which the interference pattern shows a minimum amount of fringes which is due to the at least a partial compensation of the observed phase shifts, created by the first n polarizing beams splitters and the second n po¬ larizing beam splitters.

With the successive arrangement of the polarizing beam splitters, the unwanted effect that each interferogram has a varying origin depending on the position with respect to the axis, can therefore be reduced. Thus the range in which the origin has to be looked for, can be reduced. Furthermore, as the different origins are now closer together it is also possible to increase the angular acceptance and thus the field of view of the interferometer. By scanning the at least one of the polarizing beam splitters, changing interferograms can be measured by the detector, from which a spectral analysis can be carried out using Fourier transformation.

The interferometer can furthermore be realised according to any of the above mentioned advantageous embodiments of the interferometer accord¬ ing to claim 1 or according to any combination thereof. According to a preferred embodiment, in particular also in combination with the interferometer according to claim 1 , the wedge angles with respect to the optical axis of the first n birefringent polarizing beam splitters can have opposite sign with respect to the corresponding wedge angels of the second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters, in the case that the polarizing beam splitters are Wollaston prisms. In this case, using Wollaston prisms, no ad¬ ditional polarization plane changing means is necessary to allow the partial compensation of the phase shifts, which is observed for at least some inci¬ dence angles.

Preferably the interferometer can further comprise a mirror essentially per¬ pendicular to the optical axis and arranged such that the second n birefrin¬ gent polarizing beam splitters are realized by the first n birefringent polariz¬ ing beam splitters. In this case the second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters are virtually realized by the first n birefringent polarizing beam split¬ ters and the amount of optical elements can be reduced to thereby reduce costs.

The invention furthermore relates to an interferometer according to claim 19. Preferred embodiments are according to the dependent claims. Like the interferometer according to claim 10 the polarizing beam splitters do not have to be movably arranged and due to the special design and arrange¬ ment of the polarizing beam splitters the fringe pattern is achieved.

Furthermore the first n birefringent beam polarizing beam splitters are configured and arranged such that due to birefringence and refractive effects the light beam entering the interferometer is split into a first and a second beam, and leaves the last polarizing beams splitter (the nth) in parallel and spaced from each other at a first distance. The second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters are configured and arranged such that again due to birefringence and refractive effects the two beams leave the last polarizing beams splitter again parallel, but spaced from each other at a beams splitter again parallel, but spaced from each other at a second dis¬ tance, being smaller than the first one.

Furthermore the second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters are config¬ ured and arranged such that in a direction perpendicular to the axis along which the beam splitters are arranged no interference fringes are produced. This is achieved by a compensation, with respect to this direction, of the phase shifts created in the first n polarizing beam splitters by the phase shift created in the second n polarizing beam splitters

With the inventive interferometer the angular acceptance can be enhanced compared to the state of the art interferometer. Thus the field of view can be increased. This interferometer can advantageously be used to extract spectral information in the case of a punctual source analysis using a one or two dimensional detector or in the case of a slit part of an extended source using a two dimensional detector.

The interferometer can furthermore be realised according to any of the above mentioned advantageous embodiments of the interferometer accord¬ ing to claim 10 or according to any combination thereof.

Particularly advantageous the wedge angles with respect to the optical axis of the first n birefringent polarizing beam splitters can have opposite sign with respect to the corresponding wedge angels of the second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters. In this case a mirror symmetrical arrangement can be realized while at the same time keeping the advantageous phase condi¬ tions along the two directions, compensation in one direction, fringe obser¬ vation in the second direction.

Advantageously the interferometer can further comprise a mirror essentially perpendicular to the optical axis and arranged such that the second n bire¬ fringent polarizing beam splitters are realized by the first n birefringent po- larizing beam splitters. In this case the second n birefringent polarizing beam splitters are virtually realized by the first n birefringent polarizing beam splitters and the amount of optical elements can be reduced to thereby reduce costs.

According to a variant the interferometer can further comprise a polarizing cube arranged on the axis and which serves as polarizer and analyzer. In this case the interferometer can be used with unpolarized light and, in addi¬ tion, the polarizer and analyzer is realized with only one element, again re¬ ducing costs.

According to an advantageous embodiment the interferometer can further comprise a second mirror arranged such that light with the polarization di¬ rection which is not entering the polarizing beam splitters via the polarizing cube but filtered out by the cube is mirrored into the polarizing beam split¬ ters. Using a polarizing cube non polarized light can be analyzed, however, only one polarization direction passes through the cube and enters the po¬ larizing beam splitters so that actually the signal intensity will be lower. Us¬ ing a mirror to reflect light of the other polarization direction which leaves the cube under approximately 90° with respect to the other polarization di¬ rection into the system of polarizing beam splitters, is advantageous as the detected will have a higher intensity.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention will be described in the follow¬ ing with respect to the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 illustrates schematically a prior art interferometer with two Wollaston prisms;

Fig. 2a illustrates schematically an inventive interferometer according to a first embodiment comprising four Wollaston prisms with a half wave plate in the middle; Fig. 2b shows the interferometer of the first embodiment according to the invention wherein the first Wollaston prism is displaced with respect to the axis on which the Wollaston prisms and the half wave plate are arranged;

Fig. 3 shows two examples of interference patterns obtained by the interfer¬ ometer according to the invention for two different positions of the at least one movably arranged polarizing beam splitter and an example of an inter¬ ference pattern obtained by the prior art interferometer;

Fig. 4 illustrates schematically a third embodiment of the interferometer ac¬ cording to the invention wherein another arrangement of the Wollaston prisms is used;

Fig. 5 illustrates schematically a fourth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention wherein use is made of two different birefringent materials, one positive and the other one negative;

Fig. 6 illustrates schematically a fifth embodiment of the interferometer ac¬ cording to the invention, based on the fourth embodiment, wherein another arrangement of the Wollaston prisms is used;

Fig. 7 illustrates schematically a first embodiment of a Fourier transform spectrometer according to the invention comprising an interferometer ac¬ cording to the invention;

Fig. 8 illustrates a fifth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein one of the polarizing beam splitters is displaced with re¬ spect to the remaining polarizing beam splitters;

Fig. 9 illustrates a sixth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein the wedge angles of the first n polarizing beam splitters are opposite with respect to the wedge angles of the second n polarizing beam splitters,

Fig. 10 illustrates a seventh embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein the second n polarizing beam splitters are virtually realized by the first n polarizing beam splitters using a mirror,

Fig. 11 illustrates an eighth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein a polarization cube and an additional mirror is used,

Fig. 12 illustrates a ninth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein the wedge angles of the first n polarizing beam splitters are opposite with respect to the wedge angles of the second n polarizing beam splitters and a λ/2 plate is used,

Fig. 13 illustrates a tenth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein a mirror is used to replace the second n polarizing beam splitters.

Fig. 2a illustrates, schematically, a first embodiment of an interferometer 20 according to the invention. The interferometer 20 comprises, arranged along an axis 22, a first Wollaston prism 26, a second Wollaston prism 28, a third Wollaston prism 32, a fourth Wollaston prism 34 and a light sensitive detec¬ tor 38.

In the illustrated embodiment the first Wollaston prism 26 is movably ar¬ ranged such that its position can be changed relative to the axis 22 in the direction x, which is depicted by arrows 40a and 40b. However, also any other of the Wollaston prisms could be movably arranged. The movement is essentially perpendicular to the axis 22 and in the plane of the figure. The optical elements are chosen such that the interferometer 20 can be used in the visible light range. Nevertheless by adapting the materials the device could also be used in the infrared or ultraviolet regime.

To be capable to analyse unpolarized light, the interferometer 20 can fur¬ ther comprise a polarizer 24, placed in front of the first Wollaston prism 26, to polarize light coming from a light source (not shown) and an analyser 36, placed behind the fourth Wollaston prism 34.

The polarization plane of the polarizer 24 is arranged such that, when the polarized light enters the first Wollaston prism 26, an extraordinary and or¬ dinary ray is created inside the Wollaston prism. Preferably the intensities of the ordinary and extraordinary ray should be essentially equal. This means that the polarization plane of the polarizer 24 shall be at about 45° with respect to the optical axis of the first wedge 26a of the Wollaston prism 26. Furthermore the analyser 36 is arranged such that its polarization plane is preferably either parallel to the one of the polarizer 24 or perpendicular to the one of the polarizer 24 to filter out the common polarization plane of the extraordinary and ordinary rays to enable an interference between the two.

In this embodiment the four Wollaston prisms 26, 28, 32 and 34 are all made from the same birefringent material. Furthermore the wedge angles Θ1 , Θ2, Θ3 and Θ4 with respect to the axis 22 are essentially equal. In this embodiment the direction of the optical axis of the two wedges 26a, 26b, 28a, 28b, 30a, 30b, 32a, 32b building up the four Wollaston prisms 26, 28, 32, 34 are essentially perpendicular to each other and also to the axis 22. In the figures the optical axis is either depicted by a flash 42, meaning the axis is in the plane of the figure, or by a dot 44, meaning that the axis is perpendicular to the plane of the figure. In this embodiment the first and third Wollaston prism 26, 32 are arranged in the same way and also the second and fourth Wollaston prism 28, 34 are arranged in the same way. In a practical example the prisms have a cubic form with about 40mm of length and wedge angles 91 , Θ2, Θ3 and Θ4 of about 16° in the case MgF2 or calcite is used as birefringent material. Usually the angle is chosen as a function of the difference of the refractive index of the ordinary and the ex¬ traordinary ray and the overall size of the Wollaston prisms. Other materi¬ als than magnesium fluoride or calcite like ADP, KDP1 quartz or LiNbO3 can also be used as birefringent material to build up the Wollaston prisms.

In this embodiment the optical axis of the wedge of a first Wollaston prism, for example prism 26, on the light emergent side 26b of the Wollaston prism and the optical axis of the following Wollaston prism, in this example Wol¬ laston prism 28, on the light incident side 28a are essentially in parallel. The same is also true for Wollaston prisms 28 and 32 and 32 and 34

Eventually, in a variant, the wedges 32b and 34a of the third and fourth Wollaston prism could be made out of one block of birefringent material, which would reduce the number of interfaces and would also facilitate the manufacturing of these elements.

A half wave plate 30, preferably an achromatic half wave plate, is placed in between the second Wollaston prism 28 and the third Wollaston prism 32.

The light sensitive detector 38 detecting light interference patterns occur¬ ring due to phase shifts between the ordinary and extraordinary beams cre¬ ated inside the birefringent polarizing beam splitters 26, 28, 32, 34, is posi¬ tioned on the axis 22 following the analyser 36. Use can, for example, be made of a CCD detector having a two-dimensional array of pixels, such that imaging interferometry can be carried out and depending of the application also a one-dimensional detector, a non spatially resolving detector or any other kind of suitable detector could be used. In the following the way light rays travel through the interferometer 20 will be described in detail. By light ray is understood a single light ray and the sum of light rays will create the light beam entering the interferometer 20. The light paths shown in Fig. 2a are illustrative only and do not exactly fol¬ low Snell's law.

First of all, a ray A travelling on the axis 22, thus parallel to the axis, is de¬ scribed. The light passes the polarizer 24 to become polarized and then enters the first Wollaston prism 26. The polarization plane of the polarizer 24 is chosen such that it is at about 45° with respect to the optical axis 44 of the first wedge 26a of the Wollaston prism 26 Thus an ordinary and an extraordinary ray are created. As the light beam A hits the first wedge 26a of the first Wollaston prism 26 at 90° no refractive effect will occur and thus there will be no spatial separation between the two rays in the first wedge 26a.

At the first interface 46 of the first Wollaston prism 26 the two rays are separated from each other (A2 represents the ray with its E field perpen¬ dicular to the plane of the figure, illustrated by a dot on the A2 ray) and A1 represents the ray with its E field in the plane of the figure illustrated by an arrow) due to refraction, as the ray A hits the interface 46 at an angle of (9O°-Θ1), wherein Θ1 is the wedge angle of prism 26.

The two rays A1 and A2 then enter the second Wollaston prism 28. Hardly any refractive effect occurs as the optical axis of the second wedge 26b of prism 26 and the optical axis of the first wedge 28a of prism 28 are essen¬ tially in parallel. Due to refraction at the interface 48 of the second prism 28 the two rays A1 and A2 become again parallel to the axis 22, they do, however, travel with a lateral displacement at a distance d1 with respect to each other. At the exit of the second Wollaston prism 28 the two rays A1 and A2 have a certain phase shift with respect to each other, which is due to the difference in path length they were travelling through as an ordinary and extraordinary ray.

The two rays A1 and A2 then pass the half wave plate 30 which changes for each ray A1 and A2 the polarization plane by 90°. Thus the E field of ray A1 becomes perpendicular to the plane of figure 2a and the E field of ray A2 lies in the plane of the figure (depicted by the dot for ray A1 and the arrow for ray A2).

After the half wave plate 30, the rays A1 and A2 enter the first wedge 32a of the third Wollaston prism 32 and at the interface 52 of the third Wollaston prism 32 refraction occurs again due to the change in the direction of the optical axis for the two wedges 32a and 32b. This time, however, as the po¬ larization planes of rays A1 and A2 have been exchanged by the half wave plate 30, the two rays A1 and A2 converge. They essentially meet each other at the wedge interface 54 of the fourth Wollaston prism 34 where they are refracted such that they propagate essentially in parallel to and on the axis 22, thus essentially without a lateral displacement between the rays.

Both rays A1 and A2 then travel through the analyser 36 where the common polarization plane of the two rays A1, A2 is filtered out, such that both rays can interfere. The interference is then detected by the detector 38. How¬ ever, as actually the phase shift between ray A1 and A2 created in the first two Wollaston prisms 26, 28 (e.g. phase A1 minus phase A2), is essentially opposite to the phase shift occurring in the third and the fourth Wollaston prisms 32, 34, due to the symmetry created by the change of the polariza¬ tion plane due to the half wave plate 30, the phase shifts compensate each other to a great extent and in a perfect system would even annihilate each other, thus ray A1 and A2 leave the fourth prism 34 essentially in phase and thus constructive interference occurs. If the detector 38 together with the analyser 36, was placed behind the sec¬ ond Wollaston prism 28, like in a state of the art interferometer a phase dif¬ ference would be present such that if interference occurred this would be either constructive or destructive depending on the phase shift.

In the following ray B, also parallel to, but at a certain distance d2 with re¬ spect to the middle axis 22, will be described in detail. As can be seen by comparison with the rays A1 and A2, the rays B1 and B2 travel essentially the same distance as ordinary and extraordinary rays and therefore after the Wollaston prisms 26, 28, 32, 34, also essentially without a phase differ¬ ence.

A third ray C impinges on the first Wollaston prism 26 under an angle α with respect to the axis 22. Due to this angle α the ray C separates into two rays C1 , C2 which is due to the difference in refractive index of the ordinary and the extraordinary rays. At the first interface 46 and second interface 48 further refractive effects occur and when the rays C1 and C2 leave the sec¬ ond Wollaston prism 28, they propagate under essentially the same angle α with respect to the axis 22, but at a certain lateral displacement d3 (first distance) with respect to each other. After having travelled through the half wave plate 30 the two rays C1 , C2, having changed their polarization plane, enter the third Wollaston prism 32. Due to the refractive effects occurring at the various interfaces: at the entrance of the third Wollaston prism 32, at the interface 52 of the Wollaston prism 32, at the interface 54 of the fourth Wollaston prism 34 and at the exit of the fourth Wollaston prism 34, the rays C1 and C2 are again essentially combined into one ray and leave the prism 34 under the angle α with respect to the axis 22. Compared to the prior art interferometer the lateral displacement (second distance) between the two rays after leaving the fourth Wollaston prism is decreased, such that they can interfere with each other in one pixel of the CCD detector 38. Again due to the symmetric arrangement of the prisms together with the half wave plate 30 in between, the phase shift occurring due to the first two WoI- laston prisms 26, 28 is compensated by the following third and fourth Wollaston prisms 32, 34, and in the ideal case a complete compensation such that the phase shift difference is equal or close to zero, takes place. Therefore even for ray C impinging under an angle different from 90° rays C1 and C2 are in phase, just as for the rays A and B. If again, the detector 38 together with the analyser was placed right after the second Wollaston prism 28, rays C1 and C2 would have a certain phase shift with respect to each other and depending on the angle the interference pattern would change. Thus in an arrangement with four birefringent polarizing beam splitters, all arranged in a row, each made out of the same material, having the same wedge angle, compensation between the phase shift occurring in the first half of the polarization beam splitters and the second half of the polarization beam splitters can be optimised, such that a zero phase shift or at least nearly zero phase shift is obtained at the exit of the last Wollaston prism 34 independently of the angle of the incident α and the height d2 under which the rays enter the first Wollaston prism 26. In this case the detector 38 de¬ tects a zero fringe pattern or at least a pattern without strong intensity variations.

In order to create phase shifts such that the image detected by the detector 38 changes, the at least one movably arranged polarizing beam splitter, in this case the Wollaston prism 26, is displaced by an amount X0 along the x direction with respect to the axis 22. This displacement is illustrated in Fig. 2b which represents the interferometer as shown in Fig. 2a, with the only difference being that Wollaston prism 26 has been moved by the amount X0. The other elements correspond to the ones described in Fig. 2a and are their detailed description is thus not repeated again. In this embodiment only prism 26 is movably arranged, however, without departing from the in¬ vention also another prism or more than one prism could be moved. With respect to the zero phase shift position (x0 = 0, see Fig. 2a) a phase shift will be observed between rays A1 and A2 as well as rays B1 and B2 at the exit of the last Wollaston prism 34 which is linearly dependent on the displacement in direction x. More precisely the phase shift is of the order of

δ(x) = 2xo (nθ-n0) tanθ equation (1)

Like in the case of the interferometer with only two Wollaston prisms the phase difference will in addition contain a dependency on the view angle, thus the angle α under which a ray enters the Wollaston prisms (like ray C).

Unlike the case with only two Wollaston prisms the position of zero phase shift is achieved for X0 = 0 independently of angle and incident height, and therefore a Fourier transform can be easier obtained than with the prior art interferometer.

Furthermore the arrangement as shown in Figs. 2a and 2b has the advan¬ tage that due to the fact that on the light emergent side the last Wollaston prism 34 the ordinary and corresponding extraordinary rays have a smaller lateral displacement than in the prior art interferometer no additional lens system is needed to realize the interference between those two rays after having travelled through the analyser 36.

As furthermore due to the fact that the origin for the Fourier transform is known from the position for which the Wollaston prisms have a symmetric arrangement (x0 = 0) it will be possible to allow a larger field of view, of more than 10° usually of up to 25° or more than in comparison with the state of the art interferometer having a relatively low field of view of about 5°. In a practical example the four Wollaston prisms 26, 28, 32, 34 have been fabricated out of magnesium fluoride MgF2. With such an arrangement the following interference patterns have been observed with a two dimensional CCD type detector.

Fig. 3a shows a picture obtained by the detector 38 for a prism position Xo=O, thus the symmetric case represented in Fig. 2a. Accordingly no fringes are observed and the measured intensity is essentially constant over the whole measured area. Thus the position X0=O corresponds to the zero phase shift position. When the movably arranged Wollaston prism is then moved by a certain amount X0 a fringe pattern is observed, as illustrated in Fig. 3b, which is due to the created phase shifts. On the detector the inten¬ sity is changing in the same direction (x direction) as the one in which the displacement of the Wollaston prism takes place, and is constant in the di¬ rection perpendicular (y direction). The larger the X0 value, the more fringes will appear in the x direction. As a comparison Fig. 3c illustrates an interfer¬ ence pattern obtained for X0=O with a prior art interferometer only employing two Wollaston prisms. Instead of having a zero fringe picture for X0=O more than fifty fringes are observed. Furthermore fringes are present as well in the x direction as in the direction perpendicular. Thus the analysis to iden¬ tify the zero phase shift position for each pixel becomes by far more compli¬ cated.

The interferometer illustrated in Figs. 2a and 2b is only one example of how the invention can be realized. Further embodiments will be described in the following

Fig. 4 illustrates a second embodiment of an interferometer according to the invention. Elements of this embodiment having reference numerals which have already been used in the description of the first and second embodi¬ ment will not be explained in detail again, as they do have the same proper¬ ties as described earlier. Actually in this embodiment the polarizer 24, the first Wollaston prism 26, the half wave plate 30, the third Wollaston prism 32, the analyser 36 and the detector 38 correspond to the ones already dis¬ closed with respect to the first embodiment.

With respect to Fig. 4 the second Wollaston prism 28 and the fourth Wollas¬ ton prism 34 have been replaced by a new second Wollaston prism 70 and a new fourth Wollaston prism 72. Those prisms 70, 72 are made out of the same material as prisms 28 and 34, but the wedge angles Θ2 and Θ4 are opposites with respect to the axis 22, thus having the same absolute value but different sign. Due to this the directions of the optical axis in the first wedges 70a, 72a and in the second wedges 70b, 72b also have to be dif¬ ferent. The optical axis of the light incident wedges 70a, 72a of the prisms 70, 72 are now perpendicular to the plane (depicted by dots), whereas pre¬ viously they were lying in the plane perpendicular to the axis 22, and the optical axis on the light emergent wedges 70b, 72b of the prisms 70, 72 are now lying in the drawing plane (depicted by arrows).

The arrangement shown in Fig. 4 essentially has the same properties as the one of Fig. 2a, namely, a ray entering the first prism 26 under a certain an¬ gle will leave the second prism 70 under the same angle, but the two rays created inside the prisms due to refraction will have a certain phase shift with respect to each other and will be have a certain lateral displacement. After having traveled through the third and the fourth Wollaston prism 32, 72 those two rays will then essentially be combined together again and for a displacement position of the movable Wollaston prism 26 of X0=O compen¬ sation of the phase shifts will occur so that again, as in the case of Fig. 2a, a zero fringe pattern will be obtained.

Like in the case of embodiment one, at least one of the Wollaston prisms 26, 70, 32, 72 is movably arranged so that the phase relation can be changed by introducing an asymmetry in the path. Thus, dependent on the position of the movably arranged prism(s), changing interference patterns can be obtained and a Fourier transform can be carried out.

Fig. 5 illustrates a third embodiment of an interferometer according to the invention. Elements of this embodiment having reference numerals which have already been used in the description of the first and second embodi¬ ment will not be explained in detail again, as they do have the same proper¬ ties as described earlier.

In this third embodiment the polarizer 24, the first and the second Wollaston prisms 26, 28, as well as the analyser 36 and the detector 38 are corre¬ sponding to the ones described with respect to the first embodiment. The difference with respect to the earlier embodiments is that the third and fourth Wollaston prisms 80, 82 are made of a birefringent material having a birefringent behaviour which is opposite in sign to the one of the material of the first and second prisms 26, 28. That is, for example, when the first and second prism 26, 28 are made out of a positive birefringent material, such as magnesium fluoride, the third and fourth prism 80, 82 are made of a negative birefringent material such as, for example, calcite. Thus there is no need to provide a half wave plate in the middle of the Wollaston prisms as due to the difference in birefringent character the phase shift created in the first half is at least partially compensated in the second half when the movably arranged first Wollaston prism 26 is at the X0=O position. Ideally the difference in refractive index of the negative birefringent material is ex¬ actly the opposite to the difference in refractive index of the positive bire¬ fringent material, as then the wedge angles as well as the width of the four Wollaston prisms could have the same value to achieve complete or at least nearly complete compensation of the phase shifts.

However, usually the birefringent properties do not match and as a conse¬ quence the wedge angles Θ3 and Θ4 as well as the thickness of the third and fourth Wollaston prisms (80, 82) need to be adapted such that an opti- mised compensation of the phase shifts is achieved. This choice will de¬ pend of the materials and the field of view used. Preferably the wedge an¬ gles Θ3 and Θ4 are chosen to be equal to Θ1 and Θ2. This embodiment has the advantage that the achromatic half wave plate 30 is no longer necessary, so that the number of optical elements necessary is reduced.

Fig. 6 shows a fourth embodiment of an interferometer according to the invention. Elements of this embodiment having reference numerals which have already been used in the description of the first to fourth embodiment will not be explained in detail again, as they do represent the same proper¬ ties as described with respect to the previous embodiments. Actually the polarizer 24, the first Wollaston prism 26, the analyser 36 and the detector 38 are common with the other embodiments. Like in the fourth embodiment, two different materials are used for the first and second Wollaston prisms 26, 90 and the second Wollaston prisms 80, 92. Herein the third Wollaston prism 80 corresponds to the one employed in the previously described em¬ bodiment illustrated in Fig. 5.

As for the second embodiment, illustrated in Fig. 4, also the fourth embodi¬ ment uses a different arrangement of the Wollaston prisms, namely the second Wollaston prism 90 and the fourth Wollaston prism 92 have an op¬ posite wedge angle Θ2, Θ4 with respect to the wedge angles 91 , Θ3 of the first and third Wollaston prisms 26, 80. Due to this, the direction of the op¬ tical axis of the second and fourth Wollaston prism wedges are inversed, namely, on the light incident side the optical axis is perpendicular to the plane and on the light emergent side of the Wollaston prisms 90, 92 the op¬ tical axis is lying in the plane essentially perpendicular to the axis 22.

The way rays will travel through this arrangement are essentially the same as previously described with respect to third embodiment illustrated in Fig. 5. Thus the same advantages can be achieved, namely, there is no need for a half wave plate.

All described embodiments have in common that for at least one position of the at least one movably arranged Wollaston prism the arrangement of the different elements shows a certain symmetry such that the phase shift oc¬ curring in one part of the optical elements is compensated for, at least par¬ tially, by the remaining optical elements. From this position the zero phase shift position can easily obtained for each point at which an interference pattern will be measured, in particular in the case the patterns are used in a Fourier transformation calculation, described in the following.

According to further variants, instead of four polarizing beam splitters also six, eight or even more splitters may be used. Furthermore each beam split¬ ter could be made out of a different material, in this case the wedge angles need to be adapted accordingly.

A Fourier transform spectrometer 100 will be described in detail with re¬ spect to Fig. 7. It comprises an interferometer 102 according to the inven¬ tion which can be, for example, one according to the embodiments shown in Figs. 2, 4, 5 or 6,. Again elements with the same reference numerals as in the preceding Figures will not be explained again in detail and their earlier made description is incorporated herewith by reference.

The spectrometer 100 further comprises a means for storing the interfer¬ ence patterns 104 collected by the detector 38 of the interferometer 102 and a means for carrying out a Fourier transform 106. In addition the Fou¬ rier transform spectrometer may comprise an output device 108 to output the result of the Fourier transform and/or to output the interference pattern directly measured by the detector 38. This is of particular interest during calibration of the Fourier transform spectrometer 100. In a variant the out¬ put device 108 may also be an external output device such as, for example, a computer display in which case the spectrometer 100 will comprise a suit¬ able interface to connect such an outside output device.

The Fourier transform spectrometer 100 can be used to obtain spectral in¬ formation of a device 110 placed in front of the interferometer 102 and the spectrometer 100. Light emitted from the device 110, which can, for exam¬ ple, be a display, travels through the polarizer, the four Wollaston prisms 26, 28, 32, 34, the half wave plate 30 and the analyser 36. The obtained interference pattern is then detected by the light sensitive detector 38. The interference pattern is stored in the storing means 104, and in a subsequent step the movably arranged Wollaston prism, in this embodiment prism 26, is moved such that phase shifts arise, as previously described, to alter the interference pattern. The newly obtained interference pattern is again stored in the means for storing 104. These steps are repeated until the necessary amount of interference measurements have been carried out to obtain the required spectral resolution of the Fourier transform. After the acquisition of the predetermined number of interference patterns the Fourier transform can be numerically calculated.

With this spectrometer the Fourier transformation can be determined for a predetermined amount of pixels independently of each other. Thus for each pixel analysed a spectrum is achieved representing the wavelength de¬ pendency of light emitted by the device 110 and hitting this pixel. Thus the spectra for all pixels analysed can be compared with each other. As the Fourier transform spectrometer 100 utilizes the interferometer 102 accord¬ ing to the invention the origin of the interferograms of different pixels are all the same, so that the Fourier transform calculation can be done without a complicated calibration of the device.

In a practical example of application the Fourier transform spectrometer ac¬ cording to the invention can be used to identify whether the spectrum at an edge of a display corresponds to the spectrum at a centre portion of the dis¬ play.

However, the Fourier transform spectrometer can not only be used for imag¬ ing spectrometry, but also for non imaging spectrometry with the advantage of having an interferometer with a large view angle so that, compared to prior art spectrometers, more intensity can enter the spectrometer and therefore a higher sensitivity is attained.

For such applications a zero dimensional detector in combination with a cylindrical lens, collimating light in the y direction, can be used as the light sensitive detector 38. Thus, when looking at the intensity distribution of fig¬ ure 3b, with such a detector system the intensity of one fringe is detected by the interferometer. This detected intensity is integrated over the y direc¬ tion by the collimating effect of the cylindrical lens To obtain the Fourier transform the same method as abovementioned is applied, which consists in changing the position of the movable Wollaston prism 26 and measuring the corresponding intensity.

In a variant a one dimensional detector could be used as the light sensitive detector 38 with its pixels aligned in the y direction. Integration of the meas¬ ured intensities then occurs numerically instead of optically.

According to the invention the calibration of the Fourier transform spectrometer 100 can be achieved in a relatively simple manner. It consists of moving the movably arranged polarizing beam splitter, in this example the first Wollaston prism 26, to different positions until a minimum amount of fringes is observed. In the case that the four polarizing beam splitters are matched such that the phase shift created in the first half of the Wollaston prisms is essentially compensated by the phase shift created in the second half of the Wollaston prisms a zero fringe pattern is obtained, like shown in Fig. 3a. In the example shown in Fig. 3a, the calibration can therefore easily be achieved by detecting the zero fringe pattern. This position then corre¬ sponds to X0=O of the first Wollaston prism 26 and is the position for which the Wollaston prisms are symmetrically arranged. This position corre¬ sponds to the zero phase shift position for each pixel. In practice this cali¬ bration can be carried out by using a single wavelength laser or a lamp with known spectral features to further facilitate the surge for the zero fringe pattern.

Fig. 8 illustrates a fifth embodiment of an interferometer 120 according to the invention. Like with the other embodiments the fifth embodiment also provides an interferometer with a large angle of view, which can be as large as 25° or more. Elements with the same reference numerals as in the pre¬ ceding Figures, related to the first to fourth embodiment, will not be ex¬ plained again in detail and their earlier made description is incorporated herewith by reference. The interferometer 120 corresponds to a large part to the one of the first embodiment with the main difference that the first Wollaston prism 26 is not necessarily movably arranged and can therefore also be fixed.

Accordingly the interferometer 120 comprises, arranged along the axis 22, a first Wollaston prism 26, a second Wollaston prism 28, a third Wollaston prism 32, a fourth Wollaston prism 34 and a light sensitive detector 38. The first Wollaston prism is arranged off-axis with respect to the axis 22 in the direction x to create a certain quantity of phase shift dependency, like dis¬ closed above with respect to Fig. 2b. However, also any other of the Wol¬ laston prisms could be arranged off-axis with respect to the axis 22.

To be capable to analyse unpolarized light, the interferometer 20 can fur¬ ther comprise a polarizer 24, placed in front of the first Wollaston prism 26, to polarize light coming from a light source (not shown) and an analyser 36, placed behind the fourth Wollaston prism 34.

A half wave plate 30, preferably an achromatic half wave piate, is placed in between the second Wollaston prism 28 and the third Wollaston prism 32.

The light sensitive detector 38 detecting light interference patterns occur¬ ring due to phase shifts between the ordinary and extraordinary beams cre¬ ated inside the birefringent polarizing beam splitters 26, 28, 32, 34, is posi¬ tioned on the axis 22 following the analyser 36. In this embodiment use is made of a two dimensional detector like a CCD detector with a two- dimensional array of pixels or of an one-dimensional detector. In a variant a cylindrical lens 122 is provided in front of the one dimensional detector.

All the structural changes proposed in embodiments two to four with respect to embodiment one can also be applied in the same manner to embodiment five and the features and corresponding descriptions of embodiments two to four are incorporated herewith by reference.

With the interferometer 120 according to the fifth embodiment an interfer¬ ence pattern with straight lines parallel to the y direction, as shown in Fig. 3b, is obtained, which is due to the fact that the Wollaston prism 26 is posi¬ tioned off the axis 22 at a certain distance X1. This spatially extended inter¬ ference pattern, with its intensity modulation essentially in the x direction, contains the information necessary to obtain spectral information about the light entering the interferometer 120 by carrying out a Fourier transforma¬ tion. Thus by combining the interferometer 120 with a means for carrying out a Fourier transform a Fourier transform spectrometer similar to the one described above, in relation with Fig. 7, is obtained. The features and their descriptions of the above described Fourier transform spectrometer are herewith incorporated by reference. With such a Fourier spectrometer advantage is taken of the fact that the phase shift in y direction (see Fig. 3a) is essentially constant so that for a given x the intensities in the y direction can be integrated to thereby en¬ hance the sensitivity of the device. Using a two dimensional detector the integration can be performed numerically. When a one dimensional detector is used the additional cylindrical lens 122 is placed in front of the detector 38 to integrate the intensities optically. The lens 122 is arranged such that it is collimating the light in the y direction onto the pixels of the one dimen¬ sional detector, which has its pixels arranged along the x direction. Follow¬ ing the intensity integration in the y direction the Fourier transform can be carried out.

Fig. 9 illustrates a sixth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein the wedge angles of the first n polarizing beam splitters are opposite with respect to the wedge angles of the second n polarizing beam splitters. Elements of this embodiment which having reference nu¬ merals which have already been used in the description of the previous em¬ bodiments will not be explained in detail again, as they do have the same properties as described earlier. For ease of illustration a polarizer 24, an analyser 36 and a detector 38 like shown in the previous figures is omitted, but those elements are of course also part of this embodiment.

Actually in this embodiment, compared to the first embodiment, no half wave plate is necessary, but to enable compensation of phase shifts occur¬ ring in the first two Wollaston prisms, the wedge angles Θ3 and Θ4 of the third and fourth Wollaston prisms 132, 134 are opposite to the wedge an¬ gles Θ1 and Θ2 of the first and second Wollaston prisms 26, 28. For light beam incidence angles different to zero, with respect to the optical axis 22 compensation occurs, such that due to the reduction in phase shift less fringes are detected by the detector, so that like in the previous embodi¬ ments the origin of the interferograms can be more easily found and, in ad¬ dition, the field of view be enlarged with respect to the prior art, incidence angles of up to 25° are again possible. Actually for the advantageous ef¬ fects to occur it is not an obligation to have the compensation for all inci¬ dence angles.

It should be noted that in the optimised case the wedge angles of the third and fourth Wollaston prisms 132,134 are exactly the opposite of the wedge angles of the first and second Wollaston prisms 26, 28. However, good re¬ sults are also achieved, when the angles differ slightly with respect to each other. For differences up to 5° (of the absolute wedge angles), indeed, good results are obtained.

In the sixth embodiment the Wollaston prisms 26 and 134 are movably ar¬ ranged so that they can move away from the optical axis to create a fringe pattern similar to what can be observed in Fig. 3b. Of course it is again suf¬ ficient to have at least one Wollaston which is movably arranged to create fringes.

The particular advantage of this embodiment is the fact that no half wave plate needs to be provided, so that chromatic errors due to imperfections of the half wave plate, do not have to be considered.

Further variants of the sixth embodiment can be achieved by combining fea¬ tures of the previously described embodiments with this embodiment.

Fig. 10 illustrates a seventh embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention. Here the second n polarizing beam splitters are virtually real¬ ized by the first n polarizing beam splitters using a mirror. The seventh em¬ bodiment is based on the sixth embodiment, with the difference being that the third and fourth Wollaston prisms 132, 134 are virtually realized by the first and second Wollaston prisms 26, 28. Parts having reference numerals of previous embodiments are not explained in detail again, but their descrip¬ tion is incorporated herewith by reference. The virtual realisation is achieved by placing a mirror 136 perpendicular to the optical axis 22 behind the second Wollaston prism 28, such that light having travelled through the first and second Wollaston prisms 26 and 28 will be reflected on the mirror 136 and travel again through the first and second Wollaston prisms 26 and 28. As the arrangement of the sixth embodiment is mirror symmetrical, with the symmetry plane being somewhere in between the second and third Wol¬ laston prism 28 and 132, the virtual realization of the second n polarizing beam splitters using the mirror 136 becomes possible.

This embodiment has the advantage that the number of polarizing beam splitters can be reduced by a factor of two. Of course in this embodiment it is sufficient to have only one of the remaining Wollaston prisms 26, 28 to be movably arranged, even though still both may be movable.

Fig. 11 illustrates an eighth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein a polarization cube and an additional mirror is used. The eighth embodiment is based on the seventh embodiment, so that parts and features already discussed previously are not repeated again but incor¬ porated by reference. In this embodiment instead of a polarizer 24 and an analyser 36 a polarization cube 138 is placed on the optical axis. Thus the number of elements necessary to build the interferometer is again reduced.

Away from the optical axis 22 and above the polarization cube 140 in the x- direction an additional mirror 140 is positioned under an angle of about 45° with respect to the optical axis 22.

The purpose of these additional elements will be explained using an unpo- larized light beam D entering the interferometer 142 under an incidence an¬ gle zero with respect to the optical axis 22. The rays inside the Wollaston prisms 26, 28 are only schematically drawn and do not follow the exact light path. The unpolarized light beam D first enters the polarization cube 138. Therein the two light beams D1 and D2 are created which leave the cube 138 under 90° with respect to each other. In this example beam D1 is polarized with polarization plane lying in the plane of the drawing and indicated by the ar¬ row 144.

The light beam D1 then travels through the Wollaston prisms 26, 28 is re¬ flected by the mirror 136, travels again through the prisms 26, 28 and is then reflected by the cube 138 into the direction of the detector 38, which in this embodiment is arranged off-axis with respect to the axis 22, but still is positioned on the optical axis of the overall system 142. The cube 138 at the same time also serves as analyser, such that the ordinary beam part of D1 and the extraordinary beam part of D1 which are created inside the prisms, can interfere with each other, like already explained above.

The polarized light beam D2 leaves the cube 138 in the direction of the mir¬ ror 140 with a polarization direction being perpendicular to the drawing plane, illustrated by a doted circle 146. Beam D2 is then reflected by the mirror 140 and travels, essentially in parallel with respect to beam D1 , through the Wollaston prisms 26, 28 is reflected by mirror 136 and re-enters the Wollaston prisms 26, 28. Due to the symmetry of the system the phase shift created will be essentially the same compared to the one of created in beam D1. Beam D2 is then again reflected by mirror 140, travels through the cube 138 and finally also enters the detector. Using the additional mirror 140 the signal intensity on the detector 38 can be improved, as the flux is multiplied by a factor of 2.

The described embodiments six, seven and eight are, in particular, useful for an imaging interferometer as described above. Thus the arrangements can also be used in an apparatus as illustrated by Figure 7. Fig. 12 illustrates a ninth embodiment, in particular useful for non-imaging applications, of the interferometer according to the invention. Here the wedge angles Θ1 and Θ2 of the first n polarizing beam splitters 26, 28 are opposite with respect to the wedge angles Θ3 and Θ4 of the second n polar¬ izing beam splitters 132, 134 like in the sixth embodiment, however an addi¬ tional half wave plate 148 is positioned in between the second Wollaston prism 28 and the third Wollaston prism 132. Features having the same ref¬ erence numerals as previously used, are not explained again but their de¬ scription is incorporated herewith by reference.

In addition to the presence of the half wave plate 148, the interferometer 150 also does not necessarily have movably arranged Wollaston prisms, meaning that they could also be fixed.

Accordingly, the interferometer 150 comprises, arranged along the axis 22, a first Wollaston prism 26, a second Wollaston prism 28, a half wave plate 148, a third Wollaston prism 132, a fourth Wollaston prism 134 and a light sensitive detector. The half wave plate 148 is preferably an achromatic half wave plate.

To be capable to analyse unpolarized light, the interferometer 20 can fur¬ ther comprise a polarizer 24, placed in front of the first Wollaston prism 26, to polarize light coming from a light source (not shown) and an analyser 36, placed behind the fourth Wollaston prism 134.

The light sensitive detector 38 detecting light interference patterns occur¬ ring due to phase shifts between the ordinary and extraordinary beams cre¬ ated inside the birefringent polarizing beam splitters 26, 28, 132, 134, is positioned on the axis 22, following the analyser 36. In this embodiment, use is made of a two dimensional detector like a CCD detector with a two- dimensional array of pixels or of an one-dimensional detector. In a variant a cylindrical lens 122 is provided in front of the one dimensional detector. All the structural changes proposed in the previous embodiments and suit¬ able for this embodiment can also be incorporated. The features and corre¬ sponding descriptions of the previous embodiments are incorporated here¬ with by reference.

With the interferometer 150 according to the ninth embodiment, like for the fifth embodiment, an interference pattern with straight lines parallel to the y direction, as shown in Fig. 3b, is obtained, which is due to the fact that in the y direction phase shifts created in the Wollaston prisms compensate each other whereas in the x direction this is not the case. The spatially ex¬ tended interference pattern, with its intensity modulation essentially in the x direction, contains the information necessary to obtain spectral information about the light entering the interferometer 150, by carrying out a Fourier transformation.

Thus by combining the interferometer 150 with a means for carrying out a Fourier transform a Fourier transform spectrometer similar to the one de¬ scribed above, in relation with Fig. 7, is obtained. The features and their descriptions of the above described Fourier transform spectrometer are herewith incorporated by reference.

With such a Fourier spectrometer advantage is taken of the fact that the phase shift in y direction (see Fig. 3a) is essentially constant so that for a given x the intensities in the y direction can be integrated to thereby en¬ hance the sensitivity of the device. Using a two dimensional detector the integration can be performed numerically. When a one dimensional detector is used the additional cylindrical lens is placed in front of the detector 38 to integrate the intensities optically. The lens is arranged such that it is colli- mating the light in the y direction onto the pixels of the one dimensional de¬ tector, which has its pixels arranged along the x direction. Following the in- tensity integration in the y direction the Fourier transform can be carried out.

Fig. 13 illustrates a tenth embodiment of the interferometer according to the invention, wherein a mirror is used to replace the second n polarizing beam splitters. The tenth embodiment is based on the ninth embodiment. In fact, advantage is taken of the mirror symmetrical arrangement of embodiment nine. Indeed by considering the half wave plate 148 to be equivalent to two quarter wave plates the number of optical elements necessary to realize the inventive interferometer can be reduced. The second n polarizing beam splitters and one quarter wave plate can be replaced by a mirror 152 posi¬ tioned behind the first and second Wollaston prism 26, 28 and a quarter wave plate 154. The mirror 152 is perpendicular to the axis 22, so that light is reflected back into the Wollaston prisms 26, 28, after that they have trav¬ elled through them in the opposite direction. Thus the third and fourth Wol¬ laston prisms are virtually realized by the first and second Wollaston prisms 26 and 28, and the second quarter wave plate is virtually realized by the first quarter wave plate 154. In fact, this embodiment is similar to the sev¬ enth embodiment with the only difference being that an additional half wave plate 154 is positioned between the Wollaston prism 28 and the mirror 152.

According to a variant a polarization cube and an additional mirror can be provided, like in embodiment eight.