Endress+Hauser Optical Analysis, Inc.

A spectrometric measurement method of determining concentrations of components present in a medium of a given type exhibiting different compositions in different applications includes, for at least one new application, determining a new model for determining concentrations of target components based on measured spectra of the medium of the given type present in the new application, wherein the new model is determined based on assets for determining concentrations of reference components corresponding to the target components that have been determined for reference applications, wherein the reference components have been of interest.

The present disclosure includes a method for driving a laser system, wherein the laser system includes: at least one laser diode arranged for light emission; an electronic circuit configured for driving the laser diode by applying an electric drive current; and a power sensor arrangement including at least one power sensor for measuring an optical power output, wherein the method includes: applying and maintaining the electric drive current to the at least one laser diode at a setpoint; determining measurement values of a current optical power output by the power sensor arrangement; comparing the measurement values of the current optical power output with a target optical power output; and adjusting and maintaining the electric drive current at a new setpoint when an absolute value of a difference between the target optical power output and the current optical power output crosses a threshold.

A measurement device for and a method of measuring a hydrogen concentration included in a gas. The measurement device for performing the method includes: an excitation light generator transmitting excitation light to a sample of the gas; a monochromator providing a portion of Raman scattered light emanating from the illuminated sample to a measurement detector for determining a measured intensity of the portion; and an evaluation unit determining the hydrogen concentration as a linear function of the measured intensity. The portion of Raman scattered light solely includes light having wavelengths in a measurement wavelength range having a range width smaller or equal to several nanometers and including a measurement wavelength given by a wavelength at which a Raman intensity spectrum of pure hydrogen gas exhibits a maximum.

A method for spectroscopic determination of at least one measured variable in a medium includes defining an application; providing a spectrometer, providing a raw spectrum; applying a calibration to the raw spectrum to obtain a calibrated spectrum; standardizing the calibrated spectrum to obtain a standardized spectrum. The standardization is performed using spectrometer-type-specific information and a transformation function, wherein the transformation function comprises the calibrated spectrum and additional measurement information as input variables and comprises a spectrometer-specific transformation function and calibration features. The method further comprises selecting, adapting, and/or creating a spectrometer-independent and application-specific model from the standardized spectrum and application-specific data; and determining the at least one measured variable from the raw spectrum using the model.

Flowcells and Raman analysis systems provide improved signal collection dynamics through increased solid-angle geometries and improved numerical aperture for near-diffraction-limited performance. A combined excitation/collection beam passes through a first optical material, a sample conduit and a second optical material. A concave reflective aspheric surface focuses and re-collimates the combined beam to and from a region of the sample within the conduit. The optical materials may comprise separate windows or may integrally form sidewalls the conduit. The reflective surface may be spaced apart from the second window or may be integrally formed with the second optical material. The focused region in the sample may approximate a point or a line, and at least a portion of the interior wall of the conduit may be reflective, causing the combined beam to pass through the sample region more than once to enhance collection efficiency.

A calibration light source includes: a broad band light source emitting light in a broad spectral range; and a filter receiving light emitted by the broad band light source and providing structured light by imposing an attenuation pattern exhibiting pattern features at multiple spectral reference lines on the received light such that an emission spectrum of the structured light emitted by the calibration light source exhibits distinct, identifiable emission spectrum features corresponding to the pattern features at the multiple spectral reference lines. A method of calibrating at least one spectrometer using the calibration light source is further disclosed.

A method of Raman spectroscopy for determining concentrations of at least one target component included in a medium including a given combination of multiple components includes: for each component of the medium, providing a reference spectrum of the component; based on Raman peaks included in the reference spectra, identifying Raman peaks that occur within less than a predetermined minimum spectral distance from each other as disturbing peaks; for each component, determining a component spectrum by eliminating each Raman peak included in the reference spectrum of the respective component identified as a disturbing peak; based on the component spectra, determining synthetic spectra of samples of the medium including different concentrations of the components; and based on the synthetic spectra, determining and providing a model for determining concentrations of each target component based on measured spectra of samples of the medium.

A measuring head and a measurement apparatus comprising a measuring head for performing surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic measurements. The measuring head comprises a housing, an optical device including a window closing off an opening of the housing and a prism extending into the interior of the housing, and a SERS-substrate disposed on an outer side of the measuring head. The SERS-substrate includes a nanostructured layer and a chemically inert, transparent passivation layer. The optical device is evanescently coupled to the SERS-substrate and configured to receive excitation light transmitted to the optical device through the housing, to refract the excitation light towards the SERS-substrate such that an evanescent field extends from the SERS-substrate into a medium adjacent an outside surface of the passivation layer, and to receive Raman scattered light emanating from the medium through the SERS-substrate and to direct the Raman scattered light through the housing.

A spectrometric measurement method of, in measurement situation(s) within a predetermined application, determining measurement results of measurand(s) of a medium of an application specific type, wherein each measurement situation is predetermined by specifying at least one influencing factor affecting measured spectra in the respective measurement situation, includes: based on universal training data, determining a universal model for determining predictions of each measurand; for each measurement situation, based on the universal model and supplementary training data including at least one supplementary spectrum determined in the respective measurement situation and corresponding supplementary value(s) of each measurand, determining a dedicated model for determining measurement results of each measurand in the respective measurement situation; and based on measured spectra determined in the respective measurement situation and the dedicated model, determining measurement results of each measurand of the medium.

A spectrometric measurement method includes: with multiple calibration light sources, exhibiting known emission spectra performing calibrations of multiple spectrometers; based on calibration data attained by these calibrations, assessing a variability exhibited by measured spectra determined by calibrated spectrometers; determining reference spectra of reference samples exhibiting known reference values of at least one measurand; based on the reference spectra and the previously assessed variability, determining synthetic spectra of reference samples exhibiting the previously assessed variability; and based on the measured reference spectra, the synthetic spectra and the corresponding reference value, determining and providing a model for determining measurement results of the at least one measurand. An analyzer for assessing the variability exhibited by measured spectra determined by calibrated spectrometers is configured to perform simulated calibrations.