This is somewhat silly but i've been thinking lately about how possible it would be to make a relatively cheap FTIR spectrometer (or several) at home. I'm still at the phase where i'm trying to figure out if it'd be even possible though, but i've got a few ideas. This thread is sort of a sanity check since I'm sure there's people that know more about this stuff on here than the crap i've been able to find through google.
The things i'd like to make myself are off-axis parabolic mirrors, IR windows, and a beam splitter.
For the IR windows i've been thinking about using zinc selinide co2 laser cutter lenses and grinding them flat-enough. The most i've found about grinding lenses, flats, and mirrors at home is from the amateur astronomy world where they're grinding large chunks of glass. I'm not sure of the same techniques would translate as easily to a single 20mm diameter blank, but I'm thinking it might be possible to stick/ clamp them all to a surface and grind a whole bunch of them at once. But i'm not so sure on a good method for sticking them that would be easy to remove once the job is done.
For the beam splitter i'm thinking it might be possible to sputter a half mirror onto one of those flat-enoughs. There's alot of stuff online about sputtering at home. But I think I might need to find more info on other optical coatings to reduce internal reflections or the mirror from corroding. Not been able to find much on stuff in the mid IR region though.
I feel sort of half confident about the windows and the beam splitter, but where i'm really stuck is on the off-axis parabolic mirrors. From what i've seen (
t=2m37s) they're made with fancy CNC machines. I'm not sure if there's a way to make one (or several) at home to a high standard, but I've been wondering if it'd be possible to cast or press one if I was able to get a die made. I don't think regular resins would retain their shape to a high degree, nor would anything that needed to be heated up. And then assuming i'm sputtering the mirror surface onto it then it'd need to be able to survive some temperature.
Any information or advise would be appreciated.