Method and device for optically detecting nanoparticles in a fluid sample

US10222319B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignees

• ECOLE SUPERIEURE DE PHYSIQUE ET DE CHIMIE INDUSTRIELLES DE LA VILLE DE PARIS · FR
• CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE · FR
• Université Pierre et Marie Curie · FR
• ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE · FR
• Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) · FR

Inventors

• Albert Claude Boccara · Paris, FR
• Martine Boccara · Paris, FR

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 29, 2015
• Grant date: Mar 5, 2019
• Expiry date: Sep 29, 2035

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06T2207/10056
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A device for optically detecting in transmission nanoparticles moving in a fluid sample includes a light source for emitting a spatially incoherent beam for illuminating the sample; an imaging optical system; and a two-dimensional optical detector. The imaging optical system includes a microscope objective. The two-dimensional optical detector includes a detection plane conjugated with an object focal plane of the microscope objective by said imaging optical system. The two-dimensional optical detector allows a sequence of images of an analysis volume of the sample to be acquired, each image resulting from optical interferences between the illuminating beam incident on the sample and the beams scattered by each of the nanoparticles present in the analysis volume during a preset duration shorter than one millisecond. The device further includes an image processor that allows an average of a sequence of said images to be taken and said average to be subtracted from each image in order to determine, for each nanoparticle of the analysis volume, the amplitude of the scattered beam.