Client:
Major Oil & Gas Service Company

Time to Delivery:
12 Weeks

Project Overview:
For this project, the customer needed to measure the dispersed domain size and stability of a specialty emulsion. This stability should be measured with the emulsion at rest, so currently available Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Zeta Potential systems were not a viable option.

System Overview:
The system we developed was a Static Light Scattering (SLS) system. It used a highly stable diode laser with an ultra-low noise off-axis photon counting system. The whole system was controlled by a computer interface written to guide the user through the entire measurement process and output the statistical distribution of domain sizes without any further data processing.

• Target Noise: 50fW/Hz^1/2

• Noise as Built: < 20fW/Hz^1/2

• Target Size Characterization Capability: 100nm

• Size Characterization Capability as Built: < 40nm

System Features:

• Custom Light Tight Enclosure

• Off-Axis Avalanche Photodiode System

• Integrated Optical Beam Chopper & High-Pass Filter

• National Instruments Counter Card & Controller Block

• Computerized Data Collection with Custom Lab-View Control Software & Data Analysis Algorithms

• Developed Size Calibration Routines with NIST Latex Standards

• Custom Electronics to Display and Control Detector Sensitivity, Gate Frequency, etc...