Generating light with a specified spectral power distribution

A particular version of a spectral integrator has been designed. It consists of a xenon lamp whose light is dispersed into a color spectrum by dispersing prisms. Using a transmissive LCD panel controlled by a computer, certain fractions of the light in different parts of the spectrum are masked out. The remaining transmitted light is integrated and projected onto a translucent diffusing plate. A spectroradiometer that measures the generated light is also attached to the computer, thus making the spectral integrator a closed-loop system. An algorithm for generating the light of a specified spectral power distribution has been developed. The resulting measured spectra differ from the specified ones with relative rms errors in the range of 1%-20% depending on the shape of the spectral power distribution.