OPTICAL SENSOR SYSTEM AND METHOD OF SENSING

• US 20110109907A1
• Filed: 11/12/2009
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cytiva Sweden AB (Danaher Corporation)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Meyers, Mark Marshall, Ivarsson, Bengt Arne
• Granted Patent: US 8,743,368 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 356/445
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/552 Attenuated total reflection
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/553 and using surface plasmons fluorescence excitation G01N21/648; enhanced Raman G01N21/658
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/648 using evanescent coupling or surface plasmon coupling for the excitation of fluorescence

Abstract

An optical detection system is provided for generating and detecting a beam of electromagnetic radiation having intensity. The optical detection system comprises a source for producing the beam of electromagnetic radiation; and a body, that is at least partially transparent and comprises an ATR-sensor layer on at least a portion of the body, having an entrance surface for the beam of electromagnetic radiation, an internally or externally reflective surface that reflects the beam transmitted through the entrance surface, and an exit surface through which the beam, reflected from the second surface, exits the transparent body. The optical detection system may further comprise a distribution device between the beam source and the body; wherein the distribution device redistributes the intensity of the beam from a non-uniform intensity distribution to a substantially uniform intensity distribution; and a detector that detects the beam of electromagnetic radiation exiting the body.

Claims

1. An optical detection system for generating and detecting a beam of electromagnetic radiation having an intensity, comprising:

a source for producing the beam of electromagnetic radiation;

a body, that is at least partially transparent and comprises an ATR-sensor layer on at least a portion of the body, having an entrance surface for the beam of electromagnetic radiation, an internally reflective surface that reflects the beam transmitted through the entrance surface, and an exit surface through which the beam reflected from the second surface exits the transparent body;

a distribution device between the beam source and the body;

wherein the distribution device redistributes the intensity of the beam from a nonuniform intensity distribution to a substantially uniform intensity distribution;

a detector that detects the beam of electromagnetic radiation exiting the body.

2. The optical sensor system of claim 1, wherein the distribution device comprises one or more aspherical lens.

3. The optical sensor system of claim 1, wherein the distribution device comprises a concave aspherical lens and a convex aspherical lens.

4. The optical sensor system of claim 1, further comprising a first beam collimator between the beam source and the distribution device.

5. The optical sensor system of claim 1, further comprising a second beam collimator between the distribution device and the body.

6. The optical system of claim 1, wherein source for producing the beam of electromagnetic radiation comprises at least one of a surface emitting diode, an edge-emitting diode, a superluminescent diode, or a laser source.

7. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the source for producing the beam of electromagnetic radiation is coupled to an optical fiber.

8. The optical sensor system of claim 1, further comprising a controller for the distribution device, that is selected from one or more of a correlated manual controller, an automatic optomechanic controller, or an electro-optomechanic controller.

9. The optical sensor system of claim 1, further comprising a magnifying lens subsystem that magnifies the emitting area of the electromagnetic radiation.

10. The optical sensor system of claim 9, wherein the magnifying lens subsystem comprises a spherical lens, aspherical lens, anamorphic lens, or combinations thereof.

11. The optical sensor system of claim 9, wherein the magnification range of the magnifying subsystem is 2 to 5×

.

12. The optical sensor system of claim 9, comprising a manual controller, automatic optomechanic controller, electro-optomechanic controller, or combinations thereof.

13. The optical sensor system of claim 1, wherein the beam comprises high power electromagnetic radiation.

14. The optical sensor system of claim 1, wherein the ATR-sensor layer is adjacent to a fluidic flow cell.

15. The optical sensor system of claim 14, wherein the ATR-sensor layer comprises a plasmon generating metal film comprising gold, silver, or alloys thereof.

16. The optical sensor system of claim 1, wherein the redistributed beam has a power in the range of about 85 percent to 100 percent of the power of the beam from the source.

17. The optical sensor system of claim 1, wherein the substantially uniform intensity distribution has a flat top intensity distribution.

18. An optical subsystem for use in a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) detection system comprising, an electromagnetic radiation source that produces a beam having an intensity, a fluidic flow cell, and an SPR detector associated with the fluidic flow cell, comprising:

a lens that collimates the beam;

an aspheric lens that modifies the beam so that the intensity of the beam has a flat top distribution;

a second aspheric lens that collimates the modified beam;

a cylindrical lens that converts the collimated modified beam to an anamorphic beam and focuses the anamorphic beam on an interface of plasmon generating metal film and the fluidic flow cell via a prism.

19. The optical subsystem of claim 18, wherein the anamorphic beam is a wedge shaped beam.

20. The optical subsystem of claim 18, wherein the electromagnetic radiation source comprises at least one of an edge-emitting diode, superluminescent diode or a laser source.

21. The optical subsystem of claim 18, wherein the electromagnetic radiation source is coupled to an optical fiber, where the fiber output is a beam having an intensity distribution.

22. The optical subsystem of claim 18, wherein the electromagnetic radiation is in a range from about 600 to 900 nm.

23. The optical subsystem of claim 18, wherein the SPR detector is selected from a diode array semiconductor PIN-diode array, a scintillator-based array, a CCD array, a TFT- or CMOS-based detector, or a PSD sensor detector.

24. The optical subsystem of claim 18, wherein the aspheric lens comprises a concave lens, convex lens or a combination thereof.

25. The optical subsystem of claim 18, wherein the fluid flow cell is adjacent to the plasmon generating metal film.