An electro-optic birefringence fine-particle sizer

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Abstract
When subjected to pulsed electric fields, particles in suspension undergo orientational order. With the majority of materials this is accompanied by the induction of birefringence into the medium. An apparatus is described in which the birefringence is generated, measured and analysed for suspensions of sub-micron sized particles when subjected to electric pulses of short duration. By varying the amplitude of the applied field, data are accumulated and analysed via an average rotary diffusion coefficient for the particles to yield an equivalent log-normal distribution of particle sizes for polydisperse samples. The method is extremely fast and is able to handle particles of non-spherical shape in terms of any assumed geometry. Illustrative data are given for the nearly-spherical particles of polytetrafluoroethylene in water.

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