Beam, light reflected

For higher accuracy, a method involving ampHtude modulation of a continuous laser beam is used. Again, a detector receives light reflected from the object where the distance is to be measured. The phases of the modulation in the outgoing beam and in the reflected return are compared. For a total phase shift A( ) between the two signals, the range R is... 

Bar code scanners, for example, exploit the directionality of a laser beam. The laser light reflects more strongly from white stripes than from black. Because of the directionality of the laser beam, the reflected laser beam faithfully mirrors the pattern of the bar code. A sensor reads these variations and converts the light pattern into an eiectronic representation of the bar code. The sensor transmits the electronic representation to a computer. 

Reflectance measurements involve measurements of the intensity of light reflected from a flat specular surface of an electrode in a spectroelectrochemical cell. The incident light is polarized either parallel (p) or perpendicular s) to the plane of incidence, as shown in Fig. 27.24. A detector monitors the intensity of the reflected beam. The light is monochromatic, but the spectrometers usually can be tuned over large wavelength ranges. There are excellent reviews of reflectance by McIntyre (1973) and Plieth et al. (1992). 

Deviation refractometers are the most commonly used. This version of the DRI measures the deflection in the location of a light beam on the surface of a photodiode by the difference in refractive index between the polymer solution and pure solvent. The Fresnel-type refractometers operate on the principle that the intensity of light reflected from a glass-liquid interface is dependent on the incident angle and the RI difference between the two phases. The deviation and Fresnel detectors typically have cell volumes of 5 to 10 pi, detection limits of about 5 x 10-6 refractive index units (RIU), and a range of 10 7 to 10 3 RIU.156 The deflection-type DRI is relatively insensitive to the buildup of contaminants on the sample cell and is therefore of special utility in laboratories that process large numbers of samples, such as industrial laboratories. 

When a beam of light reaches a surface delimiting between two different materials, such as air and water, glass and water, or any other pair of materials, part of the light beam is reflected, that is, it is turned back from the surface. Provided the second material is transparent, the part of the beam that is not reflected passes through the surface, enters the material and changes its path. Such a beam is said to be refracted. 

Most materials exhibit specific colors because they absorb certain wavelengths (colors) from white, ordinary light. A red object exposed to white light, for example, appears red because atoms on its surface absorb all the other colors in the beam and reflect only red. If transparent materials contain coloring materials, such as dyes or pigments, they absorb the characteristic color of the coloring material. 

The light reflected by a powdered solid will consist of a specular reflection component and of a diffuse reflection component. The specular component represents reflection of the incident light by the surfaces of the component particles, and it is characterized by a complete absence of light transmission through the interiors of the particles. By contrast, diffuse reflectance is associated with the radiation that penetrates into the particles to some extent and that then emerges from the bulk solid. This light will exhibit spectral characteristics that are modified from those of the incident beam by the electronic transitions that took place within the solid phase and at the boundaries of the component particles. 

Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Porosimetry (EP). In general, ellip-sometry takes advantage of the change of polarization of a polarized light beam after reflection from a surface. From the parameters (T and A), obtained... 

Dichroic mirror (or so called chromatic beam-splitter) reflects wavelengths of light below the transition wavelength value and transmits wavelengths above this value. 

Fig. 6. Experimental arrangement for lifetime measurements by the phase-shift method, using laser excitation. The laser beam is amplitude-modulated by a Pockel cell with analysing Nicol prism and a small part of the beam is reflected by a beam splitter B into a water cell, causing Rayleigh scattering. This Rayleigh-scattered light and the fluorescence light from the absorption cell are both focused onto the multiplier cathode PMl, where the difference in their modulation phases is detected. (From Baumgartner, G., Demtroder, W., Stock, M., ref. 122)).

ELLIPSOMETRY The structure of liquid surfaces with monomolecular films can be studied by measuring the light reflected from the surface. The range of thickness that one generally considers to be measured varies from 100 to 1000 A (10-100 nm). However, in monolayers in which the molecules are oriented and the thickness involved is 5-50 A, the methods have been not easily pursued. In a differential method in which two beams of light from the same incandescent lamp were directed... 

In diffuse reflection spectroscopy, the spectrometer beam is reflected from, scattered by, or transmitted through the sample, whereas the diffusely scattered light is reflected back and directed to the detector. The other part of the electromagnetic radiation is absorbed or scattered by the sample [124,125]. Changes in band shapes or intensity as well as signal shifts can be affected by morphological and physicochemical properties of the sample or combinations thereof (e.g., chemical absorptions, particle size, refractive index, surface area, crystallinity, porosity, pore size, hardness, and packing density [126]). Therefore, NIR diffuse reflection spectra can be interpreted in dependence of various physical parameters [127]. 

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