| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten the measuring time of a sensor utilizing the attenuated total reflectance caused by surface plasmon, etc., without lowering the measuring accuracy of the coupling between a sensing material and an object to be inspected. SOLUTION: A sample liquid 15 containing the object to be inspected is supplied to a measuring unit 10 in which the sensing material is fixed by means of a sample liquid supplying mechanism 70, and a light beam 30 is made incident on the unit 10 at various angles so that a total reflection condition may be obtained on the interface between a metallic film formed on the internal bottom face of the unit 10 and a dielectric block underlying the metallic film. In this state, the light beam 30 totally reflected by the interface is detected by means of a photodetector 40. A measuring means 61 finds the variationΔI' corresponding to the change of the angle of attenuated total reflectance with time based on the detected value of the photodetector 40. A measuring control means 66 continues the measuring until the final discriminating time Tf (2 hours) elapses when the variationΔI' is smaller than an upper-limit reference value Sp and larger than a lower-limit reference value Sn when initial discriminating time T1 (20 minutes) elapses. In the other case, the control means 66 terminates the measurement and performs discrimination. Consequently, the measuring time of this sensor can be shortened.
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