Concerning the Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer

A modified Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer (SHS) is used for measuring atomic emission spectra with high resolution. This device is basically a Fourier Transform Spectrometer, but the Fourier transform is taken in the directions perpendicular to the optical propagation and heterodyned around one preset wavelength. In recent descriptions of this device, one specific phenomenon - the tilt of the energy front of wave packets when diffracted from a grating - was neglected. This led to an overestimate of the resolving power of this spectrograph, especially in situations when the coherence length of the radiation under test is in the order of the effective aperture of the device. The limits of usability are shown here together with some measurements of known spectral lines.