Novel optical sensor for simultaneous measurement of liquid concentration and temperature

The paper describes a new optical sensor for simultaneous liquid concentration and temperature measurement. Temperature-dependent semiconductor absorption at the band edge is used as the principle of the temperature measurement, and the sensor exploits beam deviation caused by refraction due to the liquid concentration at the receiving end face of the optical device. The light intensity peak value and its deviation are detected by a charge-coupled device (CCD), and then the measured optical signal is reflected by a reflecting pyramid prism. The sensor probe is composed of an intrinsically pure GaAs single crystal, a reflecting pyramid prism, a partitioned water cell. Theoretical analysis and preliminary experimental results verify the feasibility of the proposed system.