Multi-spectral image processing for the measurement of a spatial temperature distribution on the surface of a laser-heated microscopic object

In this paper, we demonstrate that combining a laser heating (LH) system with a tandem acousto-optical tunable filter (TAOTF) allows us to measure the temperature distribution (TD) across a laser-heated microscopic specimen. Spectral image processing is based on one-dimensional (1D) non-linear least squares fitting of the Planck radiation function. It is applied for determining the temperature T at each point $(x, y)$ of the specimen surface. It is shown that spectral image processing using the 1D non-linear least squares fitting allows measurement of the TD of the laser-heated microscopic specimen with higher precision and stability than those of the conventional linear least-squares fitting of the Wien approximation of Planck’s law.