Optical instrument for measuring total reflection absorption spectrum and measuring device

• US 10,393,656 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2017
• Issued: 08/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jasco Corporation
• Original Assignee: Jasco Corporation
• Inventors: Soga, Noriaki, Sunami, Tetsuji, Asatsuma, Tsubasa, Sugiyama, Hiroshi, Koshobu, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Porta, David P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Boosalis, Fani
• Application Number:
  US16/089,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20190086332A1
• Time in Patent Office: 887 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/3563 for analysing solids; Preparation of samples therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/552 Attenuated total reflection

Abstract

An ATR optical instrument condensing an infrared light to a sample-side surface of a ATR crystal to measure a total reflection absorption spectrum includes: an incident-side ellipsoidal mirror condensing the infrared light to the sample-side surface at an incident angle equal to or larger than a critical angle θc inside; an exiting-side ellipsoidal mirror condensing a total reflection light from the sample-side surface; dichroic mirrors guiding an illumination light coaxially to the ellipsoidal mirrors; and a ZnS lens condensing a visible light from the sample-side surface to observe a contact state of the sample. The dichroic mirrors are configured to guide the illumination light to the ellipsoidal mirrors such that the illumination light is condensed to the sample-side surface at an angle less that a critical angle θc′ of the visible light. Accordingly, the ATR optical instrument becomes compact, and can visually observe the contact state of the sample surface.

Claims

1. An optical instrument for measuring a total reflection absorption spectrum condensing an infrared light on a sample-side surface of an ATR crystal that comes into contact with a sample, and being used to measure an absorption spectrum of a total reflection light from the sample-side surface, comprising:

an ATR crystal having the sample-side surface that comes into contact with the sample;

an infrared light condensing means on an incident side that guides the infrared light to condense at least a portion of the infrared light to the sample-side surface at an incident angle equal to or larger than a critical angle θ

c inside of the ATR crystal;

an infrared light condensing means on an exiting side that condenses the total reflection light from the sample-side surface;

an illumination light guiding means that guides a visible light coaxially to an optical axis of at least one of the infrared light condensing means on the incident side and the exiting side; and

a visible light condensing means that condenses the visible light from the sample-side surface to observe a contact state of the sample from a direction different from the respective optical axes of the infrared light condensing means on the incident side and the exiting side,

wherein the illumination light guiding means guides the visible light to the infrared light condensing means so that at least a portion of the visible light is condensed to the sample-side surface at an incident angle less than a critical angle θ

c′

of the visible light.

2. The optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the illumination light guiding means guides the visible light to the infrared light condensing means such that the visible light passes almost a half of a cross-section on a side that makes the incident angle to the sample-side surface small among a light beam cross-section of the infrared light condensed by the infrared light condensing means.

3. The optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the visible light condensing means condenses the visible light along the optical axis perpendicular to the sample-side surface.

4. The optical instrument according to claim 3, wherein the visible light condensing means has a condensing lens for the visible light that is retained independently from the ATR crystal,

the condensing lens for the visible light is provided to be in contact with the ATR crystal, has pressure resistance equivalent to the ATR crystal, and is colorless and transparent.

5. The optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the infrared light condensing means on the incident side and the exiting side are consisted of ellipsoidal mirrors.

6. The optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the illumination light guiding means forms the optical axis of the visible light connected to the optical axis of the infrared light condensing means, and is provided with a mask that blocks a part of the light beam cross-section of the visible light on the optical axis of the visible light.

7. The optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the illumination light guiding means has a splitting optical configuration of the visible light that splits the visible light from one illumination light source to guide one split beam to the infrared light condensing means on the incident side, and the other split beam to the infrared light condensing means on the exiting side.

8. The optical instrument according to claim 1, wherein the illumination light guiding means

guides the visible light to the infrared light condensing means such that the visible light passes almost a half of a cross-section on a side that makes the incident angle to the sample-side surface small among a light beam cross-section of the infrared light condensed by the infrared light condensing means,

forms the optical axis of the visible light connected to the optical axis of the infrared light condensing means, and

is provided with a mask that blocks a part of the light beam cross-section of the visible light on the optical axis of the visible light, and

the visible light condensing means condenses the visible light along the optical axis perpendicular to the sample-side surface.

9. A measuring device for a total reflection absorption spectrum condensing at least a part of an infrared light on a sample-side surface of an ATR crystal that comes into contact with a sample at an incident angle equal to or larger than a critical angle θ

c of the infrared light to measure an absorption spectrum of a total reflection light from the sample-side surface, comprising;

an ATR crystal having a sample-side surface that comes into contact with a sample;

an infrared light emitting means that emits an infrared light;

an infrared light condensing means on an incident side that guides the infrared light from the infrared light emitting means to condense the infrared light at an incident angle equal to or larger than a critical angle θ

c inside the ATR crystal;

an infrared light condensing means on an exiting side that condenses a total reflection light from the sample-side surface;

a light detecting means that detects the total reflection light from the infrared light condensing means;

an illumination light guiding means that guides a visible light coaxially to an optical axis of at least one of the infrared light condensing means on the incident side and the exiting side; and

a visible light condensing means that condenses the visible light from the sample-side surface to observe a contact state of the sample from a direction different from the respective optical axes of the infrared light condensing means on the incident side and the exiting side,

wherein the illumination light guiding means guides the visible light to the infrared light condensing means so that at least a part of the visible light is condensed to the sample-side surface at an incident angle less than a critical angle θ

c′

of the visible light.