Patent ID: 11933718
Assignee: nan
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. An optical system for analyzing and identifying a circularly birefringent sample medium, comprising:
an optical cavity formed by a first mirror and a second mirror, wherein the first mirror is configured to receive into the cavity a beam from a beam source, and wherein the first mirror and the second mirror are positioned to propagate the beam over a plurality of roundtrip traversals of the cavity;
a circularly birefringent sample medium within the optical cavity, the circularly birefringent sample medium configured to receive the beam and temporally separate the beam into components with either clockwise or counter-clockwise rotating polarization states with each roundtrip traversal;
two quarter-wave or half-wave plates positioned within the optical cavity, one of the two quarter-wave or half-wave plates being positioned between the first mirror and the circularly birefringent sample medium within the optical cavity, and the other of the two quarter-wave or half-wave plates being positioned between the second mirror and the circularly birefringent sample medium within the optical cavity, the quarter-wave or half-wave plates configured to induce a change in the polarization state of the beam or the beam components;
a photodetector positioned to receive an exiting beam from the cavity after a threshold number of traversals of the beam and detect a signature of the circularly birefringent properties of the sample medium by measuring spectral response of the exiting beam; and
a signal processing device, having one or more processors and one or more memories, and configured (i) to analyze the exiting beam from the optical cavity over a range of beam wavelengths and (ii) to identify a biological material in the sample medium based on a signature of circularly birefringent properties of the sample medium.