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Single Particle Extinction and Scattering allows novel optical characterization of aerosols

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Abstract

We apply to aerosols the optical method of Single Particle Extinction and Scattering recently proposed for characterizing liquid suspensions and specifically adapted to the aim. It provides simultaneous measurements of the real and imaginary parts of the field scattered in the forward direction by single airborne particles passing through a tightly focused laser beam. The intensity of transmitted light is collected in the forward direction, thus realizing a self-reference interferometric scheme relying on the fundamentals of the optical theorem. A high frequency (20 MS/s), extended dynamics (12 bits) sampling is performed by a cheap segmented photodiode, and a specific pulse shape analysis is exploited to validate the signals against a precise mathematical model. We show that accessing two independent physical quantities allows to exploit physical models to recover the aerosol size distribution from the measurement of the refractive index, either real or even complex. Laboratory measurements have been performed with polydisperse aerosols made of water droplets and NaCl in the submicron range, and the system has been accurately characterized. Examples of measurements of graphite nanoparticles and Pyrethrum smoke are shown. Limitations are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Marzio Giglio for useful discussions, F. Cavaliere and D. Viganò of the Mechanical Workshop of the Physics Department for supporting the realization of the SPES instrumentation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria, 16, I-20133, Milan, Italy

    Federico Mariani, Vera Bernardoni, Roberta Vecchi, Gianluigi Valli, Tiziano Sanvito, Bruno Paroli, Alberto Pullia & Marco A. C. Potenza

  2. INFN-Milan, via Celoria, 16, I-20133, Milan, Italy

    Vera Bernardoni, Roberta Vecchi, Gianluigi Valli, Bruno Paroli, Alberto Pullia & Marco A. C. Potenza

  3. Joint Research Centre, European Commission, via Fermi 2749, I-21027, Ispra, Italy

    Francesco Riccobono

  4. EOS s.r.l., viale Ortles 22/4, I-20139, Milan, Italy

    Tiziano Sanvito

  5. CIMAINA, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria, 16, I-20133, Milan, Italy

    Marco A. C. Potenza

Authors
  1. Federico Mariani
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  2. Vera Bernardoni
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  3. Francesco Riccobono
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  4. Roberta Vecchi
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  5. Gianluigi Valli
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  6. Tiziano Sanvito
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  7. Bruno Paroli
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  8. Alberto Pullia
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  9. Marco A. C. Potenza
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Correspondence to Marco A. C. Potenza.

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Mariani, F., Bernardoni, V., Riccobono, F. et al. Single Particle Extinction and Scattering allows novel optical characterization of aerosols. J Nanopart Res 19, 291 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-017-3995-3

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