Noise in Fourier self-deconvolution.

A general formula for computing changes in the signal-to-noise ratio of a spectrum resulting from the Fourier self-deconvolution procedure is derived. Self-deconvolution reduces the intrinsic halfwidths of lines by a factor K, which is in practice limited by the noise in the spectrum. With the help of the derived formula, the rate of decrease in the SNR as a function of K for eight different smoothing (apodization) functions is studied. With high K values there are significant differences in the SNR as a result of the use of different smoothing functions. With K = 4 a difference of more than 1 order of magnitude between two extreme cases is demonstrated, and with K = 5 a difference of almost 2 orders of magnitude in the SNR is predicted.