System Measures Optical Spectrum Components While Preserving Spatial Detail of Object Surface

Conventional commercial spectrometers or spectrophotometers are usually able to measure optical spectrum from a specified surface area at one point. This is done either with one detector scanning the spectrum in narrow wavelength bands or with an array detector, in which case all the spectral components are acquired at once. If one desires to measure the spectrum at several spatial locations of the specified surface, the target under examination or the measuring instrument has to be mechanically scanned.