Abstract: A portable liquid design system includes a portable information handling system (IHS) that employs a liquid design application capable of operating in different modes to design different liquids such as corn syrup, espresso, coffee, soda pop and others. The portable liquid design system may include a refractometer to measure the refractive index and temperature of a liquid under test. The liquid design application may apply the measured refractive index and temperature to a 3 dimensional representation of the correlation of refractive index, temperature and concentration (% total dissolved solids) to determine a particular concentration corresponding to the measured refractive index and temperature. A single 3 dimensional scale may apply to virtually all values of interest of refractive index, temperature and concentration for a particular liquid under test.

Abstract: An improved refractometer for automatically determining the refractive index of a test subject by using principles embodied in Brewster's Angle, the refractometer comprising a light source, a light detector, a subject mount for securing the test subject to the device, a positioning device to orient the light source and light detector to the subject such that the angles of the light source and light detector to the subject are substantially identical, a data gathering device to automatically retrieve relevant data regarding the angles of the light source and light detector to the subject and the light intensity of the reflected light, and a computational device to process the data using algorithms taking into account the principles embodied in Brewster's Angle and/or Fresnel Equations in order to arrive at the refractive index of the test subject.

Abstract: Provided is a differential refractive index detector having a light receiving element, a zero glass, a zero glass driving unit and a storing portion, and is capable of performing purging operation thoroughly based on a unified standard. The light receiving element receives a measuring light passing through cells (S, R) to generate a slit image. The zero glass makes the slit image parallelly move on the light receiving element. The zero glass driving unit makes the zero glass rotate. The storing portion stores a rotating angle of the zero glass when the same solution fills up the two cells (S, R). When a purging operation for replacing a reference solution in the flow cell is performed, the stored rotating angle is taken as a standard value for being compared with a current rotating angle of the zero glass. If the two angles are the same, the purging operation is finished.

Abstract: A device for determining a refractive index (Rl) in a large number of points of a physical medium, comprising: a light laser for performing a series of p pulsed laser rays (PLRs) each proceeding from a starting point Ap and arriving in an arrival point Bp following the shortest optical path between the two points Ap and Bp; a timer to record a time Tp when each PLR reaches the arrival point Bp; and a computer programmed for finding the shortest optical path among all the optical paths starting from the starting point Ap and all reaching the arrival point Bp, and from p linear equations linking elementary optical paths (L) and the refraction indices (N) to the detected travel time Tp, for solving the matrix equation [N]*[L]=[T] relative to a vector of the refractive indices [N] and repeating until [L] and [N] converge.

Abstract: Provided is a differential refractive index detector having a light receiving element, a zero glass, a zero glass driving unit and a storing portion, and is capable of performing purging operation thoroughly based on a unified standard. The light receiving element receives a measuring light passing through cells (S, R) to generate a slit image. The zero glass makes the slit image parallelly move on the light receiving element. The zero glass driving unit makes the zero glass rotate. The storing portion stores a rotating angle of the zero glass when the same solution fills up the two cells (S, R). When a purging operation for replacing a reference solution in the flow cell is performed, the stored rotating angle is taken as a standard value for being compared with a current rotating angle of the zero glass. If the two angles are the same, the purging operation is finished.

Abstract: An optical waveguide path coupling structure is realized without requiring highly accurate alignment.

Abstract: A laser apparatus includes a laser for emitting a laser beam which is reflected from a primary mirror through a primary lens in a primary optical path and focused at a primary spot. A portion of the laser beam leaks through a back face of the mirror and is directed through a reference lens and focused at a reference spot in a reference optical path. Angular wander of the laser beam on the primary mirror is corrected by measuring the lateral position of the reference spot and adjusting the primary optical path to decrease lateral wander of the primary spot.

Abstract: A refractive index detector is described comprising a waveguide, means for contacting said waveguide with a fluid, a light source and means to transmit light into said waveguide, means for detecting light exiting from said waveguide as an indication of the refractive index of said fluid and means to automatically change the angle of incidence of the light entering said waveguide in response to changes of refractive index of said fluid. A preferred embodiment of the detector for use as a detector for gradient elution chromatography has means to indicate the rate of change of refractive index. A preferred means to automatically change the angle of incidence of the light entering the waveguide is a movable prism. It is preferred to use a monochromatic light source in the detector. It is preferred to provide reference means for the detector to compensate for changes in intensity of the light output from said light source.