Multichannel angular spectrometer

An in-fluid multichannel angular spectrometer, comprising:

• a housing having a watertight interior volume and an open sample volume;
• a reflector dish located within the open sample volume, wherein a reflective face of the reflector dish is curved about an axis of curvature;
• a broadband light source located within the watertight interior volume and configured to illuminate a sample within the open sample volume, wherein an emitted beam from the broadband light source propagates in a direction perpendicular to the axis of curvature to illuminate the sample;
• a plurality of fiber pickups located within the watertight interior volume and arranged radially about the reflector dish, wherein the plurality of fiber pickups are oriented parallel to the axis of curvature of the reflector dish, and wherein the plurality of fiber pickups are configured to receive broadband light scattered by the illuminated sample and reflected by the reflective face of the reflector dish;
• at least one dispersion element located within the watertight interior volume and in optical communication with the plurality of fiber pickups;
• an imaging sensor located within the watertight interior volume and in optical communication with the plurality of fiber pickups, wherein the imaging sensor is configured to image the broadband light received by the plurality of fiber pickups and dispersed by the at least one dispersion element;
• and
• a processor located within the watertight interior volume and in electrical communication with the imaging sensor, the processor having a power supply and computer-readable memory.

A method for measuring light scattered by a fluid sample across an angular range, comprising the following steps:

• providing the fluid sample to be measured within a sample volume;
• illuminating the fluid sample using a broadband light source, thereby causing light propagating through the fluid sample to scatter in a plurality of directions;
• reflecting the scattered light using a reflector dish curved about an axis of curvature, wherein the reflected light is reflected parallel to the axis of curvature and into an array of fiber pickups;
• receiving the scattered light through the array of fiber pickups having an arcuate arrangement and focused about the sample volume, wherein the array of fiber pickups are positioned to correspond to values within the angular range, and wherein the array of fiber pickups and the broadband light source are positioned in a coplanar orientation;
• dispersing component wavelengths of the received, scattered light using at least one dispersion element in optical communication with the array of fiber pickups;
• detecting the dispersed light using an imaging sensor in optical communication with the array of fiber pickups;
• and
• computing, using a processor in electrical communication with the imaging sensor, intensity values from each fiber pickup across the angular range for each of the dispersed component wavelengths.