Rui Lin

US Patent:

51476118, Sep 15, 1992

Filed:

Jul 24, 1989

Appl. No.:

7/384805

Inventors:

Scott A. Stout - Fullerton CA
Rui Lin - Corona CA
Gunnar W. Recht - La Habra CA
Joseph T. Senftle - Plano TX
Stephen R. Larter - Venice CA

Assignee:

Union Oil Company of California - Los Angeles CA

International Classification:

G01N 2502
G01N 3324

US Classification:

422 78

Abstract:

A heating and targeting laser beam and microscope apparatus optically senses, heats to generate a effluent fluid and chemically analyzes the thermal extract fluid or fluid pyrolyzates from a microscopic particle within a heterogeneous composite sample. A transparent duct-like chamber having a bottom opening is attached to a microscope. A contact surface of the sample is raised to abut against the bottom opening, which encloses the space around the particle and also brings the particle into the common focal plane of the microscope and the converging laser beam(s). This single step avoids the complex separate focusing and sealing steps required by present day techniques. The apparatus also includes an insulated and conductively heated collection probe and an inert gas supply (to efficiently sweep and collect the small amount of hot fluid and minimize condensation loss, secondary reactions, or complex heating devices), diverging-collimating-converging laser beam lenses (to achieve spot focusing as small as 10 microns) and a cold trap (to collect a series of fluid quantities). A collective analysis of the trapped fluid generated from a single type of particle is accomplished on a resolution quantity of fluid volatilized from the cold trap.