  We explore the advantages of a free-form dual-comb spectroscopy (DCS)
platform based on time-programmable frequency combs for real-time, penalty-free
apodized scanning. In traditional DCS, the fundamental spectral resolution,
which equals the comb repetition rate, can be excessively fine for many
applications. While the fine resolution is not itself problematic, it comes
with the penalty of excess acquisition time. Post-processing apodization
(windowing) can be applied to tailor the resolution to the sample, but only
with a deadtime penalty proportional to the degree of apodization. The excess
acquisition time remains. With free-form DCS, this deadtime is avoided by
programming a real-time apodization pattern that dynamically reverses the pulse
periods between the dual frequency combs. In this way, one can tailor the
spectrometer's resolution and update rate to different applications without
penalty. We show operation of a free-form DCS system where the spectral
resolution is varied from the intrinsic fine resolution of 160 MHz up to 822
GHz by applying tailored real-time apodization. Because there is no deadtime
penalty, the spectral signal-to-noise ratio increases linearly with resolution
by 5000x over this range, as opposed to the square root increase observed for
postprocessing apodization in traditional DCS. We explore the flexibility to
change resolution and update rate to perform hyperspectral imaging at slow
camera frame rates, where the penalty-free apodization allows for optimal use
of each frame. We obtain dual-comb hyperspectral movies at a 20 Hz spectrum
update rate with broad optical spectral coverage of over 10 THz.
