Silicon beamsplitter for Fourier transform spectroscopy at far infrared frequencies

We report the performance of a silicon wafer beamsplitter for use for low $\Delta\nu>0.3 cm^{-1}$ resolution Fourier transform spectroscopy at far infrared frequencies. We characterize the Si beamsplitter by comparing throughput spectra measured with it to those measured with the standard Mylar beamsplitters commonly used in that range. We find that the throughput of the silicon beamsplitter is substantially greater than that of the Mylar beamsplitters over most of the IR spectrum, and that they are comparable in some limited ranges. The 2 mm silicon beamsplitter has an etalon spacing of about 0.7 cm^{-1}, which interferes with its use for $0.1 cm^{-1}<\Delta\nu < 0.3cm^{-1}$. The average efficiency of the Si beamsplitter is 0.37 compared with a maximum efficiency of 0.35 for Mylar. The Si is particularly more efficient in the 100 to 400 cm^{-1} range because of absorption in Mylar.