Non-contact spectroscopy system and process

Claim 2

A spectroscopy system for non-contact analysis comprising analyzing apparatus, a source of radiation for generating a beam of radiation, scanning head structure comprising transmitting optics in said scanning head structure for directing radiation in said beam of radiation onto a surface of material to be analyzed that spaced from said scanning head structure, said transmitting optics focusing said beam of radiation in a region that is spaced at least 0.1 meter from said scanning head structure and that has a dimension of about one centimeter, and receiving optics in said scanning head structure for collecting radiation reflected from the surface of said material, and optical fiber structure having a core portion of less than one millimeter diameter for receiving said collected radiation and transmitting said collected radiation to said analyzing apparatus.

Claim 3

The system of claim 1 wherein said analyzing apparatus is of the Fourier transform type.

Claim 4

The system of claim 1 and further including drive apparatus for moving said transmitting and receiving optics relative to said material to be analyzed in a scanning operation.

Claim 5

The system of claim 1 wherein said fiber structure has a length of at least one meter.

Claim 6

The system of claim 4 wherein said radiation source is a broadband source of infrared radiation that emits radiation in the range of about two microns to twenty microns.

Claim 7

The system of claim 5 and further including scanning drive structure for moving said scanning head structure at a rate of at least 10 scans per second over a scan length of at least 0.1 meter.

Claim 8

The system of claim 1 wherein said optical fiber structure has a continuous core portion and continuous cladding over said core portion, said core and cladding having glass transition temperatures within about 100° C. of each other and thermal expansion coefficients within about 1×10 -6 per °C. of each other.

Claim 9

The system of claim 7 wherein said transmitting optics includes an ellipsoidal reflector and said receiving optics includes an ellipsoidal reflector and a supplemental reflector for directing radiation from said receiving optics ellipsoidal reflector into said core portion of said optical fiber structure.

Claim 10

The system of claim 7 wherein said core of said fiber is selected from the group consisting of chalcogenide glass, heavy metal fluoride glass, oxide glass and crystalline materials such as thalium bromohalides, cerium halides and silver halides.

Claim 11

The system of claim 9 wherein said fiber core has a length of at least one meter, a diameter in the range of 15-1000 micrometers and a refractive index greater than 1.5.

Claim 12

The system of claim 1 wherein each of said transmitting optics and said receiving optics includes an ellipsoidal reflector.

Claim 13

The system of claim 1 wherein said radiation source is a broadband source of infrared radiation that emits radiation in the range of about two microns to twenty microns.

Claim 14

The system of claim 1 and further including scanning drive structure for moving said scanning head structure at a rate of at least 10 scans per second over a scan length of at least 0.1 meter.

Claim 15

The system of claim 13 wherein said drive structure is of the raster scan type, and further including apparatus for generating an alignment radiation beam for impingement on the surface to provide a visual indication of the region being analyzed.

Claim 16

The system of claim 14 wherein said optical fiber structure has a length of at least one meter, a diameter in the range of 15-1000 micrometers and a refractive index greater than 1.5.

Claim 17

The system of claim 15 wherein said optical fiber structure has a continuous core portion and continuous cladding over said core portion throughout said transmission portion, said core and cladding having glass transition temperatures within about 100° C. of each other and thermal expansion coefficients within about 1×10 -6 per °C. of each other.

Claim 18

The system of claim 16 wherein said core of said fiber is selected from the group consisting of chalcogenide glass, heavy metal fluoride glass, oxide glass and crystalline materials such as thalium bromohalides, cerium halides and silver halides.

Claim 19

The system of claim 1 wherein said transmitting optics includes an ellipsoidal reflector and said receiving optics include an ellipsoidal reflector and a supplemental reflector for directing radiation from said receiving optics ellipsoidal reflector into said core portion of said optical fiber structure.

Claim 20

For use in a spectroscopy system, scanning head structure comprising a broadband source of infrared radiation that emits radiation in the range of about two microns to twenty microns, optical fiber structure, said fiber structure having a length of at least one meter, said optical fiber structure having a continuous core portion and continuous cladding over said core portion, said core portion and cladding having glass transition temperatures within about 100° C. of each other and thermal expansions coefficients within about 1×10 -6 per °C. of each other, and said core portion being selected from the group consisting of chalcogenide glass, heavy metal fluoride glass, oxide glass and polycrystalline or single crystal materials such as thalium bromohalides, cerium halides and silver halides, transmitting optics for focusing broad band radiation onto the surface of material to be analyzed remote from said scanning head structure, said transmitting optics including an ellipsoidal reflector for focusing said beam of radiation in a region that is spaced at least 0.1 meter from said scanning head structure and that has a dimension of about one centimeter, receiving optics for collecting radiation reflected from the surface of said material and directing said reflected radiation onto said optical fiber structure for transmission over said fiber structure to a remotely located spectroscopic analyzing apparatus said receiving optics including an ellipsoidal reflector and a supplemental reflector for directing radiation from said receiving optics ellipsoidal reflector into said core portion of said optical fiber structure; and drive apparatus for moving said transmitting and receiving optics relative to said material to be analyzed in a scanning operation.

Claim 21

For use in a spectroscopy system, scanning head structure comprising a broadband source of infrared radiation that emits radiation in the range of about two microns to twenty microns, optical fiber structure, said fiber structure having a length of at least one meter, said optical fiber structure having a continuous core portion and continuous cladding over said core portion, said core portion and cladding having glass transition temperatures within about 100° C. of each other and thermal expansions coefficients within about 1×10 -6 per °C. of each other, and said core portion being selected from the group consisting of chalcogenide glass, heavy metal fluoride glass, oxide glass and polycrystalline or single crystal materials such as thalium bromohalides, cerium halides and silver halides, transmitting optics for focusing broad band radiation onto the surface of material to be analyzed remote from said scanning head structure, said transmitting optics including an ellipsoidal reflector for focusing said beam of radiation in a region that is spaced at least 0.1 meter from said scanning head structure and that has a dimension of about one centimeter, receiving optics for collecting radiation reflected from the surface of said material and directing said reflected radiation onto said optical fiber structure for transmission over said fiber structure to a remotely located spectroscopic analyzing apparatus said receiving optics including an ellipsoidal reflector and a supplemental reflector for directing radiation from said receiving optics ellipsoidal reflector into said core portion of said optical fiber structure; and drive apparatus for moving said transmitting and receiving optics relative to said material to be analyzed in a scanning operation.