Microscatterometry system for generating an angularly resolved scattered light profile from the collected data.

An aerosol detector system is described for spatially resolved detection of an aerosol distribution in an area. The system includes a wide field polarization preserving telescope having telecentric imaging optics for imaging the earth surface onto a detector that receives phase stepped images from the telescope, A controller is arranged to provide a resulting image as a function of corresponding pixel values of the multiple images to produce an image at a spatially resolved polarization state corresponding to said aerosol substance.

An inspection apparatus includes an optical system, which has a radiation beam delivery system for delivering radiation to a target, and a radiation beam collection system for collecting radiation after scattering from the target. Both the delivery system and the collection system comprise optical components that control the characteristics of the radiation and the collected radiation. By controlling the characteristics of one or both of the radiation and collected radiation, the depth of focus of the optical system may be increased.

An egg analysis system and computer-implemented methods are provided. The system comprises a light source for illuminating an egg, a photon detector for detecting a fluctuation of scattering light emitted from the egg, a processor, and a memory storing instructions which when executed by the processor configure the processor to receive scattering light data from the photon detector, digitize the scattering light data, and analyze the digitized scattering light data. One computer-implemented method comprises a light source illuminating an egg, a photon detector detecting a fluctuation of scattering light emitted from the egg, receiving scattering light data from the photon detector, digitizing the scattering light data, and analyzing the scattering light data. Another computer-implemented method comprises receiving angle, frequency and intensity data of scattering light from an egg illuminated using a light source, identifying a germinal disc in the egg from the scattering light data, and determining at least one of a fertility or a sex of the egg based on the size and structure of the germinal disc.

A device for dark-field optical inspection of a substrate comprises: a light source for generating an incident beam that is projected onto an inspection zone of the substrate and that is capable of being reflected in the form of diffuse radiation; at least one first and one second collecting device; and a reflecting device for directing at least a portion of the diffuse radiation originating from a focal point of collection coincident with the inspection zone in the direction of the collecting devices, with a first and second reflective zone from which a first portion of the diffuse radiation is directed toward a first focal point, which is optically conjugated with the focal point of collection, and a second portion of the diffuse radiation is reflected toward a second focal point, which is optically conjugated with the collection focal point and distinct from the first focal point of detection.

A method of assessing tissue health comprises the steps of obtaining depth-resolved spectra of a selected area of in vivo tissue, and assessing the health of the selected area based on the depth-resolved structural information of the scatterers. Obtaining depth-resolved spectra of the selected area comprises directing a sample beam towards the selected area at an angle, and receiving an angle-resolved scattered sample beam. The angle-resolved scattered sample beam is cross-correlated with the reference beam to produce an angle-resolved cross-correlated signal about the selected area, which is spectrally dispersed to yield an angle-resolved, spectrally-resolved cross-correlation profile having depth-resolved information about the selected area. The angle-resolved, spectrally-resolved cross-correlation profile is processed to obtain depth-resolved information about scatterers in the selected area.

To provide a technique of obtaining the reflection characteristics of an object, which can reproduce the appearance of the object more correctly, an information processing apparatus obtains a plurality of measurement values by receiving, from each of a plurality of directions, reflected light from an object illuminated by light from a given direction, and derives, based on the plurality of measurement values, a characteristic of specular reflection light as a reflected light component in a specular reflection direction corresponding to the given direction with respect to a surface of the object, a characteristic of internal diffuse reflection light as a reflected light component after scattering and absorption in the object, and a characteristic of surface diffuse reflection light as a reflected light component which has been diffused on the surface of the object.

Disclosed is a cell analyzer that includes a flow cell through which a measurement specimen containing a body fluid flows, a light emission unit that applies light onto the measurement specimen flowing through the flow cell, a light detection unit that detects forward scattered light generated from cells in the measurement specimen to which the light is applied, an analysis unit that is programmed to analyze the cells in the body fluid based on a forward scattered light signal detected by the light detection unit, and an output unit. The analysis unit is programmed to control the output unit to output information about tumor cells in the body fluid, based on forward scattered light signal intensity and forward scattered light signal width.

Methods for identifying bacterial species in biofluid samples (e.g., whole blood samples) are described. The methods rely on optical spectroscopy, and enable rapid detection and identification of bacteria directly from whole blood. Not only can LSS-based techniques detect and identify bacteria in biofluids such as whole blood, but that species-level identification can potentially be made based on a small number of bacterial cells, without the need for observing entire colonies or performing susceptibility testing. The methods may comprise illuminating the biofluid sample with input light, detecting scattered light produced by the biofluid sample in response to the illuminating, generating first data indicative of a measured scattering spectrum associated with the biofluid sample using the detected scattered light, and identifying whether at least one of the bacterial species is present in the biofluid sample using the first data.

A structure of interest (T) is irradiated with radiation for example in the x-ray or EUV waveband, and scattered radiation is detected by a detector (19, 274, 908, 1012). A processor (PU) calculates a property such as linewidth (CD) or overlay (OV), for example by simulating (S16) interaction of radiation with a structure and comparing (S17) the simulated interaction with the detected radiation. The method is modified (S14a, S15a, S19a) to take account of changes in the structure which are caused by the inspection radiation. These changes may be for example shrinkage of the material, or changes in its optical characteristics. The changes may be caused by inspection radiation in the current observation or in a previous observation.