Nanosecond Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering for Particle Size Characterization

摘要

Particle size analyzers based on laser scattering commonly make use of light diffraction and scattering around the particle considered in its medium. For particle size below 50 μm, Fraunhofer theory must be abandoned in favor of Mie model, which requires to know the complex refractive index of both the particle and the medium. In this paper, we demonstrate that particle size characterization can be realized by measuring the macroscopic Raman spectral response of the whole set of particles excited by a laser beam. We use a home-made setup based on coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and having a 0.36 cm~(-1) spectral resolution, in which the laser source is a dual-output infrared nanosecond supercontinuum source (1064 run monochromatic pump wave, 1100-1640 nm broadband Stokes wave). The samples are latex beads in water with different diameters (20 nm, 50 nm, 100 nm, 5 urn). The C-H stretching line around 3050 cm-1 is studied. For this vibration, we study the variation of both the CARS central frequency and linewidth as a function of the particles size. A quasi linear increase of the linewidth with the inverse of the diameter is measured. A difference of 15 cm~(-1) is obtained between beads with diameters of 5 μm and 20 nm respectively. The physical phenomena at the origin of this difference are discussed, especially considering the contributions of the center and of the boundaries of the object to the global Raman response.