Patent ID: 9273949
Filing Date: 2016-03-01
CPC Classification: G01B,G01N

Claim Text:
1. A method for determining a characteristic property of a sample comprising the steps of: (a) providing a substrate having a channel formed therein for reception of a sample to be analyzed; (b) introducing a sample to be analyzed into the channel; (c) directing a light beam from a light source onto the substrate such that the light beam is incident on at least a portion of the sample to generate scattered light through reflective and refractive interaction of the light beam with a substrate/channel interface, and the sample, wherein the scattered light comprising interference fringe patterns including a plurality of spaced light bands whose positions change in position or intensity in response to changes in the refractive index of the sample; (d) detecting positional shifts and/or intensity changes in fringe patterns positioned on opposing sides of a centroid; and (e) determining the characteristic property of the sample from the positional shifts of the fringe patterns.