LASER OSCILLATOR AND LIGHT SCATTERING PARTICLE DETECTOR COMPRISING IT

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a light scattering particle detector in which a particle having a relatively small size can be detected accurately by suppressing fluctuation in the intensity of laser light cased by a pumping laser light impinging on a semiconductor laser as a returning light, thereby ensuring a sufficiently high signal/noise ratio in particle detection. SOLUTION: A laser oscillator 1 is provided with a specified angleθbetween the optical axis 11a of a semiconductor laser 11 radiating a pumping laser light Le and the optical axis 13a of a laser medium 13 being pumped by the pumping laser light Le to radiate a laser light La. A laser beam La emitted from the laser oscillator 1 is focused at a channel 2 formed by a sample fluid to form a particle detecting region 8, and particles contained in that region 8 are detected by receiving a scattering light Ls generated by the laser beam La at a light receiving section 3.