Sample holder and methodology for measuring the reflectance and transmittance of narrow-leaf samples

Measuring the reflectance and transmittance of narrow samples can be difficult, as the width of the illuminating beam may be greater than the width of the sample. The small sample area can also compound the already time-consuming process of reconfiguring the instrument between reflectance and transmittance measurements by introducing additional alignment problems. A method of measuring the reflectance and transmittance properties of narrow-leaf samples using reflectance configurations only is developed and tested. The method uses a mask and mask correction and relationships between reflectance measurements against contrasting backgrounds to determine sample reflectance and transmittance. The design of the accompanying sample-holding apparatus is also described. In testing, the mean error was less than 1% reflectance/transmittance, and standard deviation of the error was approximately 1% reflectance and 2% transmittance as compared to samples measured using conventional measurement configurations. (c) 2007 Optical Society of America.