This invention relates to an optical analyzing apparatus and method for measuring the refractive index of a fluid sample.
Various techniques have heretofore been proposed to measure the refractive index of a liquid or gas. One technique employs a prism and requires the measurement of a critical angle. In "Fundamentals of Optics", Jenkins and White, Third Edition, published by McGraw-Hill in 1957, there is shown and described at pages 257 et seq. a refractive index measuring technique which relies on determination of the displacement of interference fringes. Still another technique requires matching of refractive indices. These techniques usually require manual and/or visual intervention of an operator to perform the measurement, and hence are slow, cumbersome and of low resolution.
The most pertinent prior art known to applicants is U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,712 which discloses an apparatus for measuring the refractive index of a liquid sample introduced into a cell or reservoir provided in a transparent sample holder. The cell is packed with items of transparent material (e.g., spheres) that "provide at least several liquid-solid interfaces when the liquid is in contact with the packed material". The apparatus measures net transmission of light (the radiation intensity) when the cell is filled with liquid. However, that apparatus does not employ a periodic diffracting structure with high sensitivity to changes in refractive index to permit deviations from a preselected refractive index value to be noted and/or corrected.
The IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 13, published June 1970, at p. 121, discloses a diffraction refractometer employing a diffraction grating immersed in a medium the refractive index of which is to be measured. This arrangement requires measurement of angles .theta. and .theta.' and hence of x and x' to calculate the refractive index. It does not sense and utilize differences in intensity of the diffracted and transmitted light.