The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 31, 1996
Filed:
Sep. 10, 1993
Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention relates to an optical measuring apparatus for measuring physicochemical properties of specimen, utilizing the optical echo which is a nonlinear optical phenomenon. Light emitted from a laser beam source in the optical measuring apparatus of the present invention is split into two beams, one of which is optically delayed by an optical delay unit and the other of which is phase-modulated at a predetermined frequency by a phase modulator. An optical mixer mixes the two beams outgoing from the optical delay unit and from the phase modulator, and the mixed beam is guided onto a specimen to form a light spot thereon. Light from the specimen is detected by a photodetector, and a modulation component even times larger than the modulation frequency of phase modulator is extracted from the output signal from the photodetector. The physicochemical properties of specimen can be measured by detecting an intensity of optical echo depending upon the optical delay time set by the optical delay unit.