JP2008064697A - Laser sheet formation device, particle measuring device, laser sheet formation method, and particle measuring method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a laser sheet enabling highly accurate measurement. <P>SOLUTION: A particle measuring device 10 includes: a laser device 12 used preferably as a fluid velocity measuring device and for forming a plurality of laser sheets; a tandem polarizer including a first polarizer 30 and a second polarizer 32 in which polarization axes are parallel pairs; and an optical path modification means 34 for reflecting reflection light from the first polarizer 30 on the second polarizer 32 and includes: parallel beam generation means (30, 32 and 34) for generating parallel laser beams by transmitting a polarization component parallel to the parallel axis concerning a laser light beam and reflecting a vertical polarization component; and a laser sheet generation optical system 36 for forming the parallel laser sheet from a parallel laser beam generated by the parallel beam generation means (30, 32 and 34). Scattering light is image-analyzed by irradiating the parallel laser sheet formed to be neared on fluid including particles. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a laser sheet production technique, and more particularly to a laser sheet forming apparatus, a particle measuring apparatus, a laser sheet forming method, and a particle measuring method that provide a laser sheet that enables highly accurate measurement.

  In recent years, a particle image velocimeter (PIV) has attracted attention as a method for measuring fluid velocity. In PIV, fine particles are usually mixed in a fluid and irradiated with a sheet-like laser beam, and scattered light from the particles is photographed with a camera. Thereafter, the photographed image is subjected to image analysis to determine the fluid velocity. In many PIVs, a single laser sheet is used, and the measurement is performed by forming a plurality of laser sheet pulses in which the speed in one two-dimensional cross section is delayed in time.

  A flow velocity measurement technique using a laser has been proposed so far. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-54408 (Patent Document 1) proposes a flowmeter that measures the velocity of fine particles in a fluid to be measured using a laser and outputs the velocity as the fluid velocity to be measured. In Patent Document 1, a beam splitter that divides laser light into two laser beams having different widths, and a condensing unit that condenses the two laser beams divided from the beam splitter as two focal points having different widths in a measurement region. The flow rate is measured by dividing the distance between the two focal points by the time interval of the output signal of the semiconductor light receiving element that receives light from two focal points having different widths.

  In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-249129 (Patent Document 2), a laser device, a polarizing prism that splits the laser beam output from the laser device into two laser beams and changes the polarization direction, and these two laser beams are measured. A flowmeter having a light collecting means for condensing light as two focal points in a region, measuring a time interval between outputs from two photoelectric conversion elements, and obtaining a flow velocity by dividing the distance between the two focal points by the time interval is disclosed Has been.

  Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-140756 (Patent Document 3) includes a detection light irradiation means for detecting a change in refractive index due to excitation by light deflection and a polarization detector, and uses a time difference during refractive index detection to provide fluid. A microflow channel anemometer for measuring a flow velocity is disclosed.

  In addition, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-281263 (Patent Document 4), at least one laser device and a high-luminance region that irradiate laser beams in an intersecting manner so that a high-luminance region is formed in the atmosphere to be measured. A measuring object visualization device is disclosed that includes an imaging unit that captures the image and an output unit that extracts a region having a luminance of a predetermined level or more and outputs the extracted region as virtual particles.

  Although Patent Documents 1 to 4 disclose that particle measurement is performed using a laser beam, the laser beam is focused on two focal points, and the distance between the focal points is measured by measuring the time during which the measurement object moves between them. Divide by time to get the velocity, or cross the laser beams to form a Gaussian distribution measurement region, and then divide the particle velocity by the time interval to move the measurement region by forming multiple measurement regions. To get.

  On the other hand, a technique for measuring using a laser sheet has also been proposed. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-84005 (Patent Document 5), a scanning optical system for forming a laser sheet and a two-dimensional particle locus image on the laser sheet are proposed. There is disclosed a flow measurement system including an image capturing unit that captures images, and a timing control unit that drives the laser transmitter and the image capturing unit in synchronization with each other.

  Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-20385 (Patent Document 6) includes a laser device, a laser sheet generation optical system, a high-speed video camera equipped with one or a plurality of CCD or CMOS image sensors, and a light source and image acquisition. A system that measures the fluid velocity by reproducing the time spectrum by synchronizing with the system, continuously shooting with a slight time difference, generating a time spectrum, and performing Fourier transform, filtering, and inverse Fourier transform on the generated time spectrum. It is disclosed.

  Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-140528 (Patent Document 7) includes a laser oscillation device that irradiates laser light to a gas-liquid two-phase flow fluid containing tracer particles and bubbles, and emits light from the tracer particles and from the bubbles. Disclosed is a fluid measurement device that separates scattered light and acquires image information to perform measurement.

In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-17616 (Patent Document 8) includes an image capturing unit that captures a two-dimensional particle trajectory image of a laser sheet and a control unit that synchronizes the timing of capturing, and performs imaging in a radiation environment. A fluid flow measurement system is disclosed.
JP-A-8-54408 JP-A-5-249129 JP-A-2005-140756 JP 2001-281263 A JP 2003-84005 A JP 2004-20385 A JP-A-2005-140528 JP 2006-17616 A

  As described above, various fluid measurement techniques using a laser have been proposed, but they do not use a laser sheet, and even if a laser sheet is used, a flat laser sheet is used. There are various possible reasons for this, but in order to generate parallel laser light necessary for generating two-plane laser sheet light, the number of laser pulses for the number of laser sheets that give continuous pulses, or double pulses inside As a result, it is necessary to prepare as many lasers as the number of laser sheets, so that the system cost increases, and it is necessary to form the laser sheets sufficiently parallel in close proximity to a spatially significant area. Can be cited as problems.

  On the other hand, a measurement method referred to as a two-plane PIV is formed by forming two laser sheets separated by a minute interval and simultaneously measuring the speed with the two laser sheets, thereby measuring the measurement plane in addition to the direction along the measurement plane. It is also possible to measure a change in velocity in a direction perpendicular to the direction, and to provide not only conventional two-dimensional measurement using a laser sheet but also three-dimensional flow velocity information by simultaneous two-dimensional observation at multiple points.

  Furthermore, if the distance between the two laser sheets can be adjusted without a significant change in the setting of the laser device, it will be possible to measure the flow velocity not only in two dimensions but also in three dimensions, which is about the same as before. It can be expected that a particle measuring apparatus and a particle measuring method that can be used for more accurate fluid velocity measurement while maintaining the above apparatus / space can be provided.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and the present invention is close by adding the minimum optical elements while using the same laser apparatus and laser sheet generating optical system as those of the prior art. An object of the present invention is to provide a laser sheet forming apparatus, a particle measuring apparatus, a laser sheet forming method, and a particle measuring method capable of forming a plurality of laser sheets and measuring particles.

  Furthermore, the present invention provides a laser sheet forming apparatus, a particle measuring apparatus, a laser sheet forming method, and particle measurement, which can externally control the interval between a plurality of laser sheets without significantly changing main optical elements. The purpose is to provide.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention uses a laser device equal to or less than the number necessary for providing laser sheets, and efficiently forms a plurality of adjacent laser sheets. In order to achieve the above object, the present invention uses a tandem polarizer that includes a first polarizer, a second polarizer, and optical path changing means whose polarization axes are parallel. The laser beam is separated into mutually perpendicular polarized components by the first polarizer, one is transmitted through the first polarizer, the other is reflected by the first polarizer, and is recursed to the second polarizer by the optical path changing means. The reflected laser beam is made into a close parallel laser beam.

  The generated parallel laser beam is incident on a laser sheet generating optical system including a cylindrical lens and the like, and two laser sheets with an incident interval are formed, and can be used for measuring scattered light from particles.

  In the present invention, by controlling the spatial arrangement between the reflecting mirror and each polarizer of the tandem polarizer, it is possible to provide parallel laser sheets with different intervals by external control.

  Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a substantially parallel laser sheet that is close by using the minimum laser device and optical system, and the interval between the parallel laser sheets can be adjusted by the optical path changing means.

That is, according to the present invention, a laser device for forming a plurality of laser sheets;
A tandem polarizer including a first polarizer and a second polarizer paired with parallel polarization axes, and an optical path changing unit that reflects reflected light from the first polarizer to the second polarizer, There is provided a laser sheet forming apparatus, comprising: parallel beam generating means for transmitting the laser beam through a polarization component parallel to the polarization axis and generating a parallel laser beam by reflecting a perpendicular polarization component.

  In the present invention, the parallel beam generating unit may include an optical axis changing unit that changes an optical axis of the reflected light reflected to the second polarizer. In the present invention, a half-wave plate disposed upstream of the parallel beam generation unit and rotated relative to the polarization axis of the parallel beam generation unit, and the parallel laser generated by the parallel beam generation unit And a laser sheet generating optical system that forms a laser sheet in parallel from the beam.

  In the present invention, a plurality of polarization planes arranged on the downstream side of the first half-wave plate and the upstream side of the parallel beam generation unit and incident on the parallel beam generation unit may be the polarization axis. A second half-wave plate that rotates in a relative manner may be included. In the present invention, the number of the laser sheets to be formed may be equal to or less than the number of the laser sheets to be formed. In the present invention, the separation width of the laser sheet can be made variable.

According to the present invention, the laser sheet forming apparatus according to any one of the above,
There is provided a particle measuring device including an imaging unit that separates each polarization plane and measures scattered light from the particle. The particle measuring device of the present invention can be a fluid velocity measuring device.

According to the present invention, a method of forming parallel laser sheets,
A first polarizer and a second polarizer having a pair of parallel polarization axes, and an optical path changing means for reflecting the reflected light from the first polarizer to the second polarizer; Incident on a parallel beam generating means including a tandem polarizer, and transmitting a polarization component parallel to the polarization axis and reflecting a perpendicular polarization component to generate a parallel laser beam;
And a step of making the parallel laser beam incident on a laser sheet generating optical system to form a parallel laser sheet.

In the present invention, the laser beam from the laser device is incident on a first half-wave plate that rotates the polarization plane of the laser beam from the laser device relative to the polarization axis of the parallel beam generating means. And rotating the plane of polarization,
A plurality of planes of polarization are rotated relative to the polarization axis by a second half-wave plate disposed downstream of the first half-wave plate and upstream of the parallel beam generating means. Steps. According to the present invention, it may further include a step of changing an optical axis of the laser light reflected to the second polarizer by an optical axis changing unit.

According to the present invention,
A laser beam from a laser device is reflected by a tandem polarizer including a first polarizer and a second polarizer whose polarization axes are parallel to each other, and reflected light from the first polarizer is reflected by the second polarizer. A parallel beam generating means including an optical path changing means for transmitting a polarization component parallel to the polarization axis and reflecting a perpendicular polarization component to generate a parallel laser beam;
Making the parallel laser beam incident on a laser sheet generating optical system to form parallel laser sheets;
And separating each of the polarization planes with an imaging means and measuring scattered light from the particles.

In the present invention, the optical axis changing means changes the optical path of the laser light reflected to the second polarizer, and changes the separation width of the parallel laser beams;
The laser beam from the laser device is incident on a first half-wave plate that rotates the polarization plane of the laser beam from the laser device relative to the polarization axis of the parallel beam generating means. Rotating. In the present invention, a plurality of polarization planes are further separated by the second half-wave plate disposed downstream of the first half-wave plate and upstream of the parallel beam generating means. A step of rotating relative to. The present invention can further include a step of measuring fluid velocity by measuring particles present in the fluid.

  The present invention will be described below with reference to specific embodiments shown in the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a particle measuring apparatus including a laser sheet forming apparatus of the present invention. The particle measuring device 10 shown in FIG. 1 can be configured as a fluid velocity measuring device in a specific embodiment of the present invention. However, the present invention can be applied to a particle measuring apparatus that uses scattered light from particles to measure particle concentration, particle size, particle distribution, and the like using scattered light from particles.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a particle measuring apparatus 10 according to the present invention. The particle measuring device 10 shown in FIG. 1 is configured as a fluid velocity measuring device, and measures the velocity of the fluid using scattering from particles present in the fluid. In a specific embodiment of the present invention, the laser device 12 is an Nd: YAG laser driven at a repetition frequency of 26.7 kHz, which may be single pulse drive or double pulse drive, and is particularly limited. is not. However, for high-speed and high-accuracy measurement, for example, it is preferable to use a laser device capable of generating a timing pulse disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-20385. In the present invention, in addition to the above-described Nd: YAG laser, any laser device may be used as long as the laser device has a specified polarization plane, such as a gas laser such as an Ar ion laser or a Cu vapor laser, or a semiconductor laser. it can.

A laser beam 18 having a polarization plane perpendicular to the paper surface is emitted from the laser device 12, passes through the beam sampler 14, and reaches the half-wave plate 16. The laser beam reflected by the beam sampler 14 is photoelectrically converted by the photoelectric conversion element 26 and used as a laser beam monitor. The half-wave plate 16 is aligned such that its optical principal axis (high speed axis or fast axis) rotates the polarization plane of the laser light by π / 4 radians. The laser beam passes through the beam sampler 14 and enters the tandem polarizers 30 and 32. The tandem polarizer 30 is provided with a polarization axis inclined by π / 4 radians with respect to the plane of polarization. When the laser beam 18 enters the tandem polarizer 30, the P _|| polarization component 20 that is a parallel component to the polarization axis and the _PＰ polarization component 22 that is a vertical component are separated. In the tandem polarizer 30, the P _|| polarization component 20 is transmitted and the _PＰ polarization component 22 is reflected with the same intensity, and transmission and reflection are again generated by the tandem polarizer 32 to generate a parallel laser beam. .

The _P⊥ polarization component 22 reflected by the tandem polarizer 30 is recursively reflected to the tandem polarizer 32 by a reflection mirror 34 provided as an optical path changing means. Note that the tandem polarizers 30 and 32 and the reflection mirror 34 constitute the parallel beam generating means of the present invention. At this time, the reflection mirror 34 is aligned so that the _P⊥ polarization component 22 is reflected at a position separated by a predetermined distance from the P _|| polarization component 20 that has passed through the tandem polarizer 30 on the surface of the tandem polarizer 32. . Both the _P⊥ polarization component 22 reflected by the tandem polarizer 32 and the P _|| polarization component 20 that has passed through the tandem polarizer 32 are incident on the laser sheet generation optical system 36. In the present invention, an optical element having a similar function such as a polarizer can be used instead of the reflection mirror 34.

  The laser sheet generation optical system 36 includes an optical element such as a cylindrical lens, and converts an incident laser beam into a two-dimensionally spread laser sheet. The parallel laser sheets that have passed through the laser sheet generating optical system 36 are further adjusted in parallelism by a cylindrical lens 38 to become a substantially parallel laser sheet, and are irradiated to the measurement spot S in the measurement cell 40.

  CMOS cameras 44, 46, 50, 52 used as imaging means are arranged in proximity to the measurement cell 40 via polarization beam splitters (PBS) 42, 48. The CMOS cameras 44, 46, 50, and 52 detect scattered light from the measurement spot S of the measurement cell 40, and acquire two-plane PIV measurement data. As the CMOS cameras 44, 46, 50, 52, in the present invention, for example, it is preferable to use a high-speed CMOS camera having 512 × 512 pixels or more and a shutter frequency of 1 kHz or more. In addition, the CMOS cameras 44, 46, 50, and 52 are synchronously controlled by the timing control device 58 to perform time-resolved measurement.

  In the present invention, the scattered light from the adjacent laser sheets has different polarization planes, so that it is separated by the PBS 42 and can be measured by the CMOS cameras 44 and 46. Similarly, the CMOS cameras 50 and 52 perform measurement while distinguishing scattered light from each laser sheet. In the present invention, the arrangement of the measurement optical system, the measurement sequence, and the like are not particularly limited.

  The output of each CMOS camera 44, 46, 50, 52 is captured via a signal / trigger line 54 to a computer device 56 that performs fast Fourier transform, filter processing, inverse Fourier transform, and image processing. The computer device 56 processes the captured data using, for example, a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-20385, and outputs a fluid velocity measurement result as a two-dimensional image or a three-dimensional image.

  In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the laser light output from the laser 12 is efficiently separated using the tandem polarizers 30 and 32, and a parallel laser sheet close by a minimum optical system is provided. be able to.

  FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the particle measuring device 70 includes two laser devices 72 and 74 for generating adjacent parallel laser sheets. The first laser light emitted from the laser device 74 is introduced into the half-wave plate 76, and the second laser light emitted from the laser device 72 and the polarizer 80 are coaxially or closely parallel to each other by the reflection mirror 78. And is introduced into the reflection mirror 82. The polarizer 80 has a polarization axis along the polarization plane of the second laser light, and allows the second laser light to pass through with high efficiency. On the other hand, in the specific embodiment of the present invention, the half-wave plate 76 is aligned with its optical principal axis rotated by + π / 4 radians with respect to the polarization plane of the first laser beam. For this reason, the polarization plane of the first laser light is a polarization plane rotated by −π / 2 radians (90 °) from the polarization plane of the second laser light after passing through the half-wave plate 76. The first laser light is then reflected to the polarizer 80, and the polarizer 80 reflects the first laser light and transmits the second laser light at the same time, so that the first laser light and the second laser light are transmitted. The laser beam including the polarization plane propagates to the reflection mirror 82.

  Thereafter, the laser light is reflected by the reflection mirror 82, passes through the beam sampler 84, and is introduced into the second half-wave plate. The second half-wave plate 28 is aligned such that its optical principal axis rotates the polarization plane of the first laser light by + 3 / 4π radians and rotates the polarization plane of the second laser light by −π / 4 radians. ing. For this reason, after passing through the second half-wave plate 28, the second laser beam is given a polarization plane that is shifted by 90 ° with respect to the first laser beam. Thereafter, the modulated laser light is incident on the tandem polarizers 30 and 32.

  The formed parallel laser beam is incident on the laser sheet generating optical system 36, and a parallel laser sheet is provided. Furthermore, in the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2, two laser devices can provide two parallel laser sheets having different polarization planes, and two-plane PIV measurement can be performed with a minimum optical system compared to an existing system. It is possible to efficiently carry out at low cost and space saving only by adding. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the half-wave plate 76 may be disposed not inside the laser device 72 but inside the laser device 72 so that the half-wave plate can be installed inside the laser device 72 in appearance. .

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a polarization plane included in the modulated laser beam according to the present invention described in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams (corresponding to the embodiment of FIG. 1) illustrating a light beam separation mechanism that can be applied even in the case of a laser beam including only one polarization plane. It is a figure explaining the 2nd light beam separation mechanism which can be used when 3 (c)-Drawing 3 (e) contain a plurality of orthogonal polarization planes (2nd embodiment). In the embodiment described with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B, the laser apparatus can be used with either a single pulse laser or a double pulse laser, and laser light including a plurality of polarization planes. It can also be applied to the case of separating. In the first embodiment of the light beam separation mechanism of the parallel beam generating means of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3A, the optical principal axis P _a1 is set to + π / 8 radians or −π / The polarization plane of the laser beam is rotated by + π / 4 radians or −π / 4 radians with a half-wave plate rotated by 8 radians. After that, the polarization axis P of the tandem polarizer 30 is arranged so as to be inclined by π / 4 radians with respect to the polarization plane as shown in FIG. 2B, and the laser beam is incident at an angle of 45 °. Separate into a component P _|| parallel to the axis and a component P _垂直 perpendicular to the axis.

  In general, when polarized light is incident on the polarization axis of the polarizer at an angle θ, the transmitted light intensity is given by the following formula (1) when polarization separation is ideal.

透過光を除く入射光は、反射される。また、透過光は、偏光子の偏光軸で規定される偏光面を有し、一方、反射光は、偏光軸に直交する偏光面を有する。したがって、タンデム偏光子３０、３２に入射させるレーザ光の偏光方向を、偏光軸に対してπ／４ラジアン傾斜させておくことにより、互いに垂直な偏光面を含む等強度のレーザビームを形成することができる。

Incident light other than transmitted light is reflected. Further, the transmitted light has a polarization plane defined by the polarization axis of the polarizer, while the reflected light has a polarization plane orthogonal to the polarization axis. Therefore, by forming the polarization direction of the laser light incident on the tandem polarizers 30 and 32 to be inclined by π / 4 radians with respect to the polarization axis, it is possible to form laser beams having equal intensity including polarization planes perpendicular to each other. Can do.

Thereafter, the parallel P _|| polarization component passes through the tandem polarizer 32, and the vertical _PＰ polarization component is reflected by the tandem polarizer 32 and enters the laser sheet generating optical system 36 at the polarization plane. Are parallel laser beams. The formed parallel beam is incident on the laser sheet generating optical system 36 to form a parallel laser sheet. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3B, the alignment adjustment of the polarization axis of the tandem polarizer is not particularly required as long as the plane of polarization from the laser device is well defined without using a half-wave plate. Therefore, it can also be achieved by setting the plane of polarization of the laser beam and the polarization axis of the tandem polarizer so as to form an angle of 45 °.

FIG. 3C to FIG. 3E show an embodiment in which the polarization axis of the polarizer is made to coincide with the polarization plane of the laser light and is separated, unlike FIG. 3A and FIG. As shown in FIG. 3C, the first laser beam 60 and the second laser beam 62 have a common polarization plane when they are emitted from the respective laser devices. The first laser beam 60 has a π / 2 radians (90 °) polarization plane relatively rotated by the first half-wave plate 16 having the optical principal axis _{Pa 2} at the point indicated by the arrow A in FIG. The polarization plane shown in FIG. The second half-wave plate 28 has an optical principal axis P _a3 that relatively rotates the polarization plane of the second laser light 62 by π / 4 radians, and converts the first laser light 60 into the first 1/2 The wave plate 16 is aligned so that the plane of polarization is rotated by 3 / 4π radians in the opposite rotational direction.

  As a result, at the point indicated by the arrow B in FIG. 2, the polarization planes of the first laser beam 60 and the second laser beam 62 are π / 4 radians (45 °) as shown in FIG. ) A laser beam that is rotated and includes orthogonal planes of polarization is provided.

  In the present invention, it is not always necessary to align the polarization axis P with the polarization plane of the first laser beam. First, the same polarization plane configuration and transmitted light can be obtained by using two single pulse laser devices and shifting the polarization planes of the respective laser beams by π / 4 radians (45 °) with respect to the polarization axis P. And can provide reflected light. Further, the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 will be described. After the polarization plane shown in FIG. 3 (e), the laser beam including the orthogonal polarization plane enters the tandem polarizer 30. At this time, the first laser beam 60 can be transmitted and the second laser beam 62 can be reflected by aligning the polarization axis P of the tandem polarizer 30 with the polarization direction of the first laser beam 60. In this case, although the intensity of the second laser beam 62 is reduced by the reflection efficiency of the tandem polarizer 32, the second laser beam 62 is paralleled while minimizing the intensity difference between the parallel laser beams by reflecting only one laser beam a plurality of times. A laser sheet can be generated.

  In the present invention, the polarization plane components of the first laser light and the second laser light incident on the tandem polarizers 30 and 32 do not necessarily have to be orthogonal, and as long as the scattered light from each laser sheet can be detected by the measurement system, It can be set as appropriate according to the measurement system, optical elements, and S / N ratio, and the intensity ratio of each laser sheet does not necessarily have to be the same level as long as it can be dealt with by setting the measurement system.

  In the particle measuring apparatus of the present invention, the parallel mirror sheets having different intervals are externally controlled and formed by translating the reflecting mirror 34 used as the optical axis changing means by a stepping motor. Can do. For this reason, in this embodiment, it is possible to perform almost simultaneous three-dimensional particle measurement within a predetermined spatial range, and the measurement range and measurement information can be obtained with higher accuracy.

  In addition, when using the particle | grain measuring apparatus of this invention as a fluid velocity measuring apparatus, two pulses are required for the measurement per laser sheet. When a laser device with a repetition rate of 26.7 kHz is used as the laser device, it becomes possible to measure the fluid velocity in the three-dimensional space at a maximum interval of 13.4 kHz (measurement interval = 74.6 μs). A fluid velocity measuring device can be provided.

  FIG. 4 shows the intensity profile (◯, Δ) and the second laser sheet when the proximity of the parallel laser sheet generated in the present invention is observed with respect to the horizontal polarization and vertical polarization components of the first laser sheet of the parallel laser sheet. Shows the intensity profile when observed for the horizontal and vertical polarization components (●, black triangle). FIG. 4 shows the result of fitting the intensity of the first laser sheet with a broken line. Similarly, the result of fitting the intensity distribution of the second laser beam with a solid line is shown. As shown in FIG. 4, the two laser sheets were separated by a peak interval of about 600 μm and their width (FWHM) was about 500 μm.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the intensity distribution in the direction perpendicular to the incident direction within the laser sheet surface of the parallel laser sheets generated using the laser sheet forming apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 5, ◯ and ● are the intensity distribution of the horizontal polarization of the laser sheet, and ■ and □ are the plots of the intensity distribution of the vertical polarization with respect to the position in the vertical direction. As shown in FIG. 5, although the laser intensity is slightly different in the vertical direction with respect to the horizontal polarization component of the first laser light and the second laser light, it can be seen that both laser sheets have almost the same characteristics. As for the vertical polarization component, it was shown that good uniformity was obtained for both laser sheets, and it was shown that a parallel laser sheet having uniform intensity characteristics can be obtained by the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, it was shown that the present invention could provide a substantially parallel laser sheet close to the sheet width.

  FIG. 6 shows the result of the fluid velocity vector distribution measured using the parallel laser sheet formed in the present invention and the vorticity distribution (shading) calculated from the measured fluid velocity. FIG. 6 shows scattering from a fluid containing particles, the laser sheet interval is set to about 600 μm, fluid velocity measurement is performed with a time resolution of 7.9 kHz, and a time at which the measurement result is obtained is t = 0 (FIG. 6 ( As a reference for a)), the fluid velocity measurement results after t = 253 μs (FIG. 6B) and t = 506 μs (FIG. 6C) are shown, as shown in FIG. It was shown that the scattered light from the surface laser sheet was clearly separated and observed.

  In the present invention, the number of laser sheets is not particularly limited, and the number of adjacent parallel laser sheets can be increased at a minimum cost for one laser sheet by appropriately selecting according to a specific application and purpose. Furthermore, in the present invention, by using an optical system that uses a cylindrical lens system equivalent to the incident direction of the laser light as the laser sheet generating optical system, the adjustment margin for the separation width of the parallel laser sheets can be easily expanded. .

  Although the present invention has been described with the embodiments shown in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings, and other embodiments, additions, modifications, deletions, etc. It can be changed within the range that can be conceived by a trader, and any embodiment is included in the scope of the present invention as long as the effects and effects of the present invention are exhibited.

  As described above, according to the present invention, by using the same laser device and laser sheet forming optical system as in the prior art, a plurality of adjacent laser sheets can be formed and fluid velocity measurement can be performed simply by adding the minimum optical elements. It is possible to provide a laser sheet forming apparatus, a particle measuring apparatus, a laser sheet creating method, and a particle measuring method that enable the above.

  Furthermore, according to the present invention, a laser sheet forming apparatus, a particle measuring apparatus, and a laser sheet creating method capable of externally controlling the interval between a plurality of laser sheets without significantly changing main optical elements. And a particle measuring method can be provided.

The figure which showed embodiment of the particle | grain measuring apparatus of this invention. The figure which showed 2nd Embodiment of the particle | grain measuring apparatus by this invention. The figure explaining the polarization separation function of the laser beam of this invention. The plot which showed the intensity profile of the parallel laser sheet produced | generated by this invention. The plot which showed the intensity profile of the parallel laser sheet produced | generated by this invention. The figure which showed the example of a measurement by the particle | grain measuring apparatus of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

_{DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS} 10 ... Particle measuring device, 12 ... Laser apparatus, 14 ... Beam sampler, 16 ... 1/2 wavelength plate, 18 ... Laser beam, 20 ... P _|| Polarized light component, 22 ... P Polarized light component, 26 ... Photoelectric conversion element, 28 ... 1/2 wavelength plate, 30, 32 ... tandem polarizer, 34 ... reflection mirror, 36 ... laser sheet generating optical system, 38 ... cylindrical lens, 40 ... measurement cell, 42 ... PBS, 44, 46 ... high speed CMOS Camera, 48 ... PBS, 50, 52 ... High-speed CMOS camera, 54 ... Signal / trigger line, 60 ... First laser beam, 62 ... Second laser beam, 70 ... Particle measuring device (second embodiment), 72 ... Laser device, 74 ... laser device, 76 ... half-wave plate, 78 ... reflecting mirror, 80 ... polarizer, 82 ... reflecting mirror, 84 ... beam sampler

Claims (15)

A laser device for forming a plurality of laser sheets;
A tandem polarizer including a first polarizer and a second polarizer paired with parallel polarization axes, and an optical path changing unit that reflects reflected light from the first polarizer to the second polarizer, A laser sheet forming apparatus, comprising: parallel beam generating means that transmits a polarized component parallel to the polarization axis and reflects a perpendicular polarized component to generate a parallel laser beam.   2. The laser sheet forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the parallel beam generating unit includes an optical axis changing unit that changes an optical axis of the reflected light reflected by the second polarizer.   A half-wave plate disposed upstream of the parallel beam generating means and rotated relative to the polarization axis of the parallel beam generating means, and in parallel with the parallel laser beam generated by the parallel beam generating means The laser sheet formation apparatus of Claim 1 or 2 including the laser sheet production | generation optical system which forms a laser sheet.   Further, a plurality of polarization planes arranged on the downstream side of the first half-wave plate and the upstream side of the parallel beam generating unit and incident on the parallel beam generating unit are rotated relative to the polarization axis. The laser sheet forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a second half-wave plate.   The said laser apparatus is a laser sheet forming apparatus of any one of Claims 1-4 which is below the number of the said laser sheets formed.   The laser sheet forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a separation width of the laser sheet is variable. The laser sheet forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
A particle measuring apparatus comprising: an imaging unit that separates each polarization plane and measures scattered light from the particle.   The particle measuring device according to claim 7, wherein the particle measuring device is a fluid velocity measuring device. A method of forming parallel laser sheets,
A first polarizer and a second polarizer having a pair of parallel polarization axes, and an optical path changing means for reflecting the reflected light from the first polarizer to the second polarizer; Incident on a parallel beam generating means including a tandem polarizer, and transmitting a polarization component parallel to the polarization axis and reflecting a perpendicular polarization component to generate a parallel laser beam;
A step of causing the parallel laser beam to enter a laser sheet generating optical system and forming the parallel laser sheets. The laser beam from the laser device is incident on a first half-wave plate that rotates the polarization plane of the laser beam from the laser device relative to the polarization axis of the parallel beam generating means. A step of rotating
A plurality of planes of polarization are rotated relative to the polarization axis by a second half-wave plate disposed downstream of the first half-wave plate and upstream of the parallel beam generating means. The laser sheet formation method of Claim 9 including a step.   The laser sheet forming method according to claim 9, further comprising a step of changing an optical axis of the laser light reflected to the second polarizer by an optical axis changing unit. A laser beam from a laser device is reflected by a tandem polarizer including a first polarizer and a second polarizer whose polarization axes are parallel to each other, and reflected light from the first polarizer is reflected by the second polarizer. A parallel beam generating means including an optical path changing means for transmitting a polarization component parallel to the polarization axis and reflecting a perpendicular polarization component to generate a parallel laser beam;
Making the parallel laser beam incident on a laser sheet generating optical system to form parallel laser sheets;
And measuring the scattered light from the particles by separating each of the polarization planes with an imaging means. Changing an optical path of the laser light reflected to the second polarizer by an optical axis changing means, and changing a separation width of the parallel laser beams;
The laser beam from the laser device is incident on a first half-wave plate that rotates the polarization plane of the laser beam from the laser device relative to the polarization axis of the parallel beam generating means. The particle measuring method according to claim 12, further comprising a step of rotating.   Further, a plurality of polarization planes are made relative to the polarization axis by a second half-wave plate disposed downstream of the first half-wave plate and upstream of the parallel beam generating means. The particle measuring method according to claim 13, comprising a rotating step.   Furthermore, the particle | grain measuring method of any one of Claims 12-14 including the step which measures a fluid velocity by measuring the particle | grains which exist in the fluid.

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