FIBEROPTICS SURFACE-LIGHT-SCATTERING SPECTROMETER

We have developed a fiber-optics surface-light-scattering spectrometer completely designed with optical fiber components. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a noninvasive measureme nt of the surface tension and the viscosity of simple liquid-vapor int erfaces with a fiber-optics-based sensor system. With this approach we obtain a compact size, a significant increase in the signal-to-noise ratio, and the ability to select from a continuum of wave vectors. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.