Real-time measurement of nano-particle size using differential optical phase detection

• Main Authors: Lin, Feng, Wu, Xingkun, Li, Qing, Huang, He
• Other Authors: School of Computer Science and Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Particle Size; Phase Measurement; DRNTU::Engineering::Computer science and engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88862; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45994
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We demonstrate a size sensing technique for nano-particles using optical differential phase measurement by a dual fiber interferometer through phase-generated carrier (PGC) demodulation. Nano-particle diameters are obtained from the differential phase shift as a result of adding an optical scattering perturbation into two-beam interference. Polystyrene nano-particles with diameters from 200 to 900 nm in a microfluidic channel are detected using this technique to acquire real-time particle diameters. Compared with amplitude sensing with over 10 mW of laser irradiance, particle sizing by PGC phase sensing can be achieved at a laser power as low as 1.18 mW. We further analyze major sources of noise in order to improve the limits of detection. This sensing technique may find a broad range of applications from the real-time selection of biological cell samples to rare cell detection in blood samples for early cancer screening.