A direct method of particle sizing based on the statistical processing of scattered photons from particles executing Brownian motion

• DOI: 10.1007/bf01081696
• Publication Date: 2005-02-01T08:24:50Z
• Authors: H. S. Dhadwal; K. Suh; D. A. Ross
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences

A direct method of determining the mean diameter of particles executing Brownian motion is presented. The temporal coherence of the scattered field from submicroscopic particles illuminated by laser light is a function of both the integration time and the particle diameter. The temporal degree of coherence of the time-averaged scattered intensity decreases as the integration time increases. Statistical processing of the scattered photons leads to a method of particle sizing (average diameter), which circumvents the need for digital autocor-relation or power spectral estimation.