• Chinese Optics Letters
  • Vol. 15, Issue 12, 120602 (2017)
Qing Li1, He Huang1, Feng Lin2, and Xingkun Wu1、*
Author Affiliations
  • 1State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Department of Optical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, China
  • 2School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 637553, Singapore
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    DOI: 10.3788/COL201715.120602 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    Qing Li, He Huang, Feng Lin, Xingkun Wu. Real-time measurement of nano-particle size using differential optical phase detection[J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2017, 15(12): 120602 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    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.
    S(ψ)=Φ[Norm(I1)]Φ[Norm(I2)],(1)

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    I1=(Eref+Esig)(Eref+Esig)*=I0{2+2cos[φM·sin(ω0t+φ0)]},(2)

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    I2=(Eref+r2·Esig+Es)(Eref+r2·Esig+Es)*=I0{1+r12+r22+2r1r2cos(ψ)+2r1cos[φψMsin(ω0t+φ0)]+2r2cos[φMsin(ω0t+φ0)]},(3)

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    Qing Li, He Huang, Feng Lin, Xingkun Wu. Real-time measurement of nano-particle size using differential optical phase detection[J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2017, 15(12): 120602
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