Optical spectrometers can be generally divided into two categories, frequency-domain and time-domain ones. The former includes compact, industrial-grade instruments that are easily available in the visible spectral range. The latter are lab-grade, bulky and fragile instruments that offer very high sensitivity and accuracy but are mainly limited to the infrared spectral region. This manuscript aims to present a time-domain device and several of its applications in which it is possible to combine some of the advantages of the two techniques, finally, bringing the advantage of Fourier transform spectroscopy down to the visible and near-infrared spectral regions. The device is a common-path interferometer based on birefringence. The concept is straightforward, and it is a compact, robust, and cost-effective instrument, and it has been applied in a wide range of applications. In this manuscript, the interferometer will be described from a theoretical point of view, and its capabilities will be presented applied to the measurement of fluorescence excitation–emission matrix maps down to the ultimate sensitivity at the single-molecule level, time-resolved photoluminescence spectra, spectral images, and the complex optical activity.

光谱仪一般可分为频域和时域两大类。前者包括在可见光谱范围内易于使用的紧凑型工业级仪器。后者是实验室级、笨重且易碎的仪器，提供非常高的灵敏度和准确度，但主要限于红外光谱区域。这份手稿旨在展示一种时域设备及其几种应用，其中可以结合这两种技术的一些优势，最后，将傅里叶变换光谱的优势带到可见光和近红外光谱区域. 该设备是一种基于双折射的共径干涉仪。这个概念很简单，它是一种紧凑、坚固且具有成本效益的仪器，并且已经在广泛的应用中得到应用。在这份手稿中，干涉仪将从理论的角度进行描述，其功能将被应用于荧光激发-发射矩阵图的测量，直至单分子水平的最终灵敏度，时间分辨光致发光光谱、光谱图像和复杂的光学活动。