We presume that the small errors Ej are statistically random
such that they may be characterized by the correlation relation
Spectral Errors Resulting from
Random Sampling-Position Errors
in Fourier Transform Spectroscopy
E. E. Bell and R. B. Sanderson
Both authors were with the Physics Department, Ohio State
University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, when this work was done.
R. B. Sanderson is now at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Received 4 November 1971.
In the design and operation of a two-beam interferometer in
Fourier spectroscopy, it is important to known how much the lack
of precision in the setting of the optical path differences will
affect the measured spectra. This problem has been considered
by Surh,1 and by Sakai,2 who has given a relation for the stan­
dard deviation in the size of the "ghost" lines due to the random
error in the sampling of the interferogram of a monochromatic
spectral line. We will reformulate and extend the results to
apply to a more general spectrum.
Consider an interferogram P(x) which is sampled at optical
path differences x = jΔx giving values Pj for N, conveniently an
even integer, values of the integer j in the range — N/2 ≤ j <
N/2. The discrete Fourier transform pair
will be represented by pk D Pj, where pk are sampled values of the
spectral power at intervals Δσ = l/(NΔx). The integers k will
be conveniently taken to be in the first zone, —N/2 ≤ k < N/2,
and the summations are over N values of j or k. Spectral power
at k'Δσ, where k' lies outside the first zone, will be aliased into
the first zone in a manner such that for a given positive k the
value of k' is k' = k — qN, and for a negative k, k' = qN — k.
Here q = ( —l) m Int(rn/2), where m is an integer that indexes
the aliases in the order of increasing wavenumber beginning with
m = 1 in the first zone.
In the presence of small optical path errors, the measured value
of P(x) at nominal positions jΔx will be Pj + EjPj', where the
value of the error is Ej, and Pj' is the value of dP/dx at jΔx.
The discrete Fourier transform of the measured interferogram
gives the spectrum pk plus an additional error spectrum bk, which
is the Fourier transform of EjPj'.
688 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 11, No. 3 / March 1972
The brackets represent an ensemble average obtained by averag­
ing over many interferograms. Such a correlation implies that
the Ej′s are independent and that each has an average value of
zero. The root mean square error is E; it is independent of j
and is an instrumental constant.
With random errors of this type, the average value of the
spectral error over many interferograms is zero at every spectral
position, that is,
The correlation function for the spectral error is
with the asterisk indicating the complex conjugate value of the
complex spectral error. The mean square spectral error at any
point is independent of the spectral position and is given by
It is helpful to write b2 as a function of the spectral power
density distribution by the use of Parseval's theorem. Since
i2πk'Δσpk is the Fourier transform of P j ′ , Parseval's theorem
gives
where k' must be chosen for each k according to the alias relation­
ship. Thus the root mean square spectral error is given by
with [σp(σ)] rms defined by
and the range of integration is over the true wavenumbers cover­
ing both the positive and negative half zones, which are aliased
into the calculated first zone.
The factor [σp(σ)]rms determines the influence of the mea­
sured spectrum upon the root mean squared error b. The simple
spectrum consisting of a single emission line at σ0 = kΔσ has an
average spectral power of amount p = pk/N = P(0)Ax. This
single line spectrum has a spectral error, normalized to the average
value, from Eqs. (7) and (8), of amount
which corresponds to the result of Sakai. A more normal and
efficient use of the interferometer would be in the measurement of
many lines, or continuum, distributed over the whole spectral
zone range, as, for example, the background spectrum in absorp­
tion spectroscopy. Almost any such smooth, continuous spectral
distribution, well spread over the first spectral zone, will have a
value of [σp(σ)]rms equal to FσMp with F a number between one-
half and one and σM the highest wavenumber in the spectral
zone. With F in this range, the relation
 can be used as a reasonable approximation. If the spectrum is
not smooth, but has strong emission or absorption line structure,
F will be larger. For the usual absorption spectroscopy ap­
plications, F would hardly be greater than one. For aliased
spectra, we may interpret p as the average signal over the mth
spectral zone, and F approaches one for the smooth, continuous
distribution.
The information about the spectral distribution of the errors
bk, each of the same root mean squared value b, is given by the
correlation function ck. From Eq. (4) one can see that ck is
proportional to the autocorrelation of k'Δσpk and thus is in­
timately related to the spectrum. A broad, smooth spectrum
from a continuous source produces a broad ck correlation function,
and therefore the values of bk at widely separated wavenumbers
will be correlated. The interferogram from such a source has
only a strong central structure, therefore P j 2 will be large only
for small j's and its Fourier transform ck, will be broad. This
correlation has a smoothing effect upon the bk spectrum which
would make the spectral error difficult to recognize in the spec­
trum from only one interferogram. A source with sharp lines or
narrow structure, on the other hand, would have a narrow correla­
tion function ck, and the spectral errors will only be weakly cor­
related between widely separated wavenumbers.
The spectral error is complex, bk = bk' + ibk", and we may com­
pute the ensemble mean square error of the real part separately
from the imaginary part. A cosine Fourier transform produces
the real part so that

and a sine transform gives

Thus it is seen that these errors depend upon wavenumber. Since

0 ≤ c2k ≤ c0, a conservative estimate of the mean square error for
the purpose of interferometer design and operation with a cosine
transform is (bk'2) ≈ c0 = b2.

An interferogram which is known to be symmetric is usually

measured on only one side of the center and is transformed by a
cosine Fourier transform. With Pj set equal to zero for negative
j values, the b/p ratio will be √2 greater than for the cosine
transform of the corresponding two-sided interferogram.
In conclusion it is seen that the spectral errors due to random
sampling-position errors can be estimated from the root-mean-
square position error with only a general knowledge of the spec­
trum.

References
1. M. T. Surh, Appl. Opt. 5, 880 (1966).
2. H. Sakai, Aspen International Conference on Fourier Spectros­
copy (1970), AFCRL-71-0019 Special Report 114, 5 January
1971. A numerical error in the Bessel functions of this paper
produces the discrepancy with our Eq. (9).

March 1972 / Vol. 11, No. 3 / APPLIED OPTICS 689