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Relevance of Light Scattering Theory in Photon correlation spectroscopic experiments
Author(s) -
van der Meeren Paul,
Bogaert Herwig,
Vanderdeelen Jan,
Baert Leon
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
particle and particle systems characterization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-4117
pISSN - 0934-0866
DOI - 10.1002/ppsc.19920090118
Subject(s) - rayleigh scattering , mie scattering , scattering , light scattering , optics , smoothing , sizing , physics , dynamic light scattering , computational physics , particle (ecology) , photon , molecular physics , materials science , chemistry , quantum mechanics , mathematics , statistics , nanoparticle , organic chemistry , oceanography , geology
Since photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) is essentially a light scattering technique, it estimates the intensity‐weighted particle size distribution. Using the Mie theory, some consequences were demonstrated. First, argon ion lasers were shown to be superior for particle sizing of very small particles. In addition, multiple scattering was shown to be largely dependent on the scattering angle and the state of polarization of the light source. Owing to this disturbing phenomenon, sizing of supermicron particles becomes troublesome. The estimated intensity distribution of polydisperse samples could be greatly influenced by the observation angle. The use of simplified light scattering theories such as the Rayleigh and the Debye‐Gans theory was shown to be limited to small particles, especially in the case of high refractive indices. Finally, it was shown that the smoothing effect of PCS data analysis software may give rise to artificial bimodal number‐ or weight distributions, even when the Mie theory is considered.