Suspensions Of Polystyrene Spheres Research Articles

3D investigation on polystyrene colloidal crystals by floatage self-assembly with mixed solvent via synchrotron radiation x-ray phase-contrast computed tomography

The floatage self-assembly method was introduced with mixed solvent as the medium of polystyrene sphere suspension to fabricate the colloidal crystal. The three dimensional (3D) void system of the colloidal crystal was noninvasively characterized by synchrotron radiation phase-contrast computed tomography, and the quantitative image analysis was implemented aiming to the polystyrene sphere colloidal crystal. Comparing with gravity sedimentation method, the three samples fabricated from floatage self-assembly with mixed solvents have the lowest porosity, and when ethylene glycol and water were mixed with ratio of 1:1, the lowest porosity of 27.49% could be achieved, that has been very close to the minimum porosity of ordered 3D monodisperse sphere array (26%). In single slices, the porosities and fractal dimension for the voids were calculated. The results showed that two factors would significantly influence the porosity of the whole colloidal crystal: the first deposited sphere layer's orderliness and the sedimentation speed of the spheres. The floatage self-assembly could induce a stable close-packing process, resulted from the powerful nucleation force-lateral capillary force coupled with the mixed solvent to regulate the floating upward speed for purpose of matching the assembly rate.

Depth-resolved ballistic imaging in a low-depth-of-field optical Kerr gated imaging system

We demonstrate depth-resolved imaging in a ballistic imaging system, in which a heterodyned femtosecond optical Kerr gate is introduced to extract useful imaging photons for detecting an object hidden in turbid media and a compound lens is proposed to ensure both the depth-resolved imaging capability and the long working distance. Two objects of about 15-μm widths hidden in a polystyrene-sphere suspension have been successfully imaged with approximately 600-μm depth resolution. Modulation-transfer-function curves with the object in and away from the object plane have also been measured to confirm the depth-resolved imaging capability of the low-depth-of-field (low-DOF) ballistic imaging system. This imaging approach shows potential for application in research of the internal structure of highly scattering fuel spray.

Monte Carlo modeling of polarized light propagation: Stokes vs. Jones. Part II.

In this second part of our comparative study inspecting the (dis)similarities between "Stokes" and "Jones," we present simulation results yielded by two independent Monte Carlo programs: (i)one developed in Bern with the Jones formalism and (ii)the other implemented in Ulm with the Stokes notation. The simulated polarimetric experiments involve suspensions of polystyrene spheres with varying size. Reflection and refraction at the sample/air interfaces are also considered. Both programs yield identical results when propagating pure polarization states, yet, with unpolarized illumination, second order statistical differences appear, thereby highlighting the pre-averaged nature of the Stokes parameters. This study serves as a validation for both programs and clarifies the misleading belief according to which "Jones cannot treat depolarizing effects."

Fabrication of a microball lens array for OLEDs fabricated using a monolayer microsphere template

We report on a method for fabricating microball lens arrays with high outcoupling efficiency based on the replica molding process, which involves casting liquid polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) into concave microball lens molds. Concave microball lens molds were fabricated by casting a poly-dimethyl-siloxane (PDMS) mixture onto a monolayer microsphere template, which was prepared by spin-coating an aqueous suspension of polystyrene spheres. Microball lenses were fabricated using microspheres with a diameter of 90 µm. After attaching the microball lens array to organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), the luminance was enhanced by approximately 108%.

Experimentally determined characteristics of the degree of polarization of backscattered light from polystyrene sphere suspensions

The degree of polarization (DOP) can be used to characterize the polarization-maintaining ability of a beam of polarized light propagating through a turbid medium. Experiments on polystyrene (PST) sphere suspensions show that, the linearly polarized light propagating through the PST sphere suspension of Rayleigh scatterers has better polarization-maintaining ability, whereas the circularly polarized light propagating through the PST sphere suspension of Mie scatterers has better polarization-maintaining ability. Moreover, helicity flipping occurs to the circularly polarized light propagating in the extremely weak PST sphere suspensions or on the surface of suspensions. In addition, the DOP is dependent on the wavelength of incident light. The results can be helpful to image in turbid media by use of diffuse backscattered light.

Hydrodynamic interactions between colloidal particles in a planar pore

The correlation between the motion of pairs of colloidal particles confined in a planar pore is measured using optical microscopy. The systems studied here are aqueous suspensions of polystyrene spheres of diameter 1.9 μm, interacting as effective hard spheres, confined between two parallel planar plates separated by 2.9 μm. The lateral motion, along the plane parallel to the plates, of the particles is recorded with a time resolution of 30 frames s−1. From the short-time motion, the hydrodynamic diffusion coefficients are determined as functions of the interparticle distance for various particle concentrations. At low concentrations, when the static correlation between particles is also low, the diffusion coefficients exhibit some symmetry, and at higher concentrations they are modulated by the structure of static correlation.

Polarimetry group theory analysis in biological tissue phantoms by Mueller coherency matrix

The characterization of biological tissues by optical techniques provides several advantages over other techniques. Optical techniques enable to perform high resolution and contrast imaging, in a non-invasive way and with no-contact. Biological tissues are turbid media that strongly scatter light. The ultrastructure of some tissues makes them present a certain degree of anisotropy. Both scattering and anisotropy affect light polarization. Some pathologies alter these characteristics of the tissue. As a consequence polarized light can be used to extract additional information and achieve a better diagnosis. In this work, Group Theory is applied to analyse the polarization behavior of several samples. Firstly, the Mueller matrix for each sample is measured. Then, the Mueller Coherency matrix is obtained by means of the SU(4)–O + (6) homomorphism. Finally, the target decomposition theorem is applied by analyzing the eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and subsequently the different polarimetric effects are separated. In this way, the contrast of tissue imaging can be increased. This analysis is applied to biological tissue phantoms, which consisted on glucose suspensions of polystyrene spheres with different scatterer concentrations. Their behaviour can be modeled by means of single or multiple scattering depending on the concentration, either in the Rayleigh or Mie regimes. The same procedure could be used in a wide range of applications, like the study of cancerous cells that grow without control in cell cultures, or erythrocytes monitoring in anemia. The technique also has a great potential to be applied in Polarization Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography (PS-OCT).

Mueller matrix imaging of human colon tissue for cancer diagnostics: how Monte Carlo modeling can help in the interpretation of experimental data

Colon samples with both healthy and cancerous regions have been imaged in diffuse light and backscattering geometry by using a Mueller imaging polarimeter. The tumoral parts at the early stage of cancer are found to be less depolarizing than the healthy ones. This trend clearly shows that polarimetric imaging may provide useful contrasts for optical biopsy. Moreover, both types of tissues are less depolarizing when the incident polarization is linear rather than circular. However, to really optimize an optical biopsy technique based on polarimetric imaging a realistic model is needed for polarized light scattering by tissues. Our approach to this goal is based on numerical Monte-Carlo simulations of polarized light propagation in biological tissues modeled as suspensions of monodisperse spherical scatterers representing the cell nuclei. The numerical simulations were validated by comparison with measurements on aqueous polystyrene sphere suspensions, which are commonly used as tissue phantoms. Such systems exhibit lower depolarization for incident linear polarization in the Rayleigh scattering regime, i.e. when the sphere diameters are smaller than the wavelength, which is obviously not the case for cell nuclei. In contrast, our results show that this behaviour can also be seen for "large" scatterers provided the optical index contrast between the spheres and the surrounding medium is small enough, as it is likely to be the case in biological tissues.

Synthesis of nanostructured films from template electrodeposition technique

In this report, the use of a simple and versatile technique of templated electrodeposition through colloidal templates to produce nanostructured films of Pt and Au with regular submicron spherical holes arranged in a hexagonal close-packed structure is described. The templates were produced by self assembly of a monodispersed suspension of polystyrene spheres on gold substrates using capillary forces. The self assembly process was modified through the chemical modification of the gold substrate with cysteamine thiol. Films of Pt and Au were prepared by electrochemical deposition through the template. The electrochemical deposition charge and the current time curve were used to control the film height with a precision of approximately 10nm. The colour of the nanostructured films changed as the film thickness was changed. On the other hand, high surface area of the nanostructured Pt film on top of the gold substrate was calculated using electrochemical cyclic voltammogram. About 55 roughness factor was obtained. SAXS measurements showed strong scattering at low angles indicating the presence of a well-ordered mesostructure.

Surface enhanced raman scattering of aromatic thiols adsorbed on nanostructured gold surfaces

Abstract In this paper we describe the use of a simple and versatile technique of templated electrodeposition through polystyrene sphere templates to produce nanostructured films of gold with regular submicron spherical holes arranged in a hexagonal close-packed structure. The templates were produced by self assembly of a monodispersed suspension of polystyrene spheres on gold substrates using capillary forces. The self assembly process was modified through the chemical modification of the gold substrate with cysteamine thiol. Films of gold were prepared by electrochemical deposition through the template. The electrochemical deposition charge and the current time curve were used to control the film height with a precision of approximately 10 nm. The colour of the nanostructured films changed as the film thickness was changed. Surface enhanced Raman Scattering spectra were recorded and used to identify very low concentrations of aromatic thiol molecules, 4-Nitrobenzenethiol (4-NBT) and 4-Aminobenzenethiol (4-ABT), adsorbed on the surface of the nanostructured gold substrates.

Numerical study of the effects of scatterer sizes and distributions on multiple backscattered intensity patterns of polarized light

We investigate numerically the effects of scatterer sizes on backscattered polarization patterns using the third-order scattering model developed. The calculated results show that both parallel and cross polarization patterns from water suspensions of polystyrene spheres have four-lobe structures of the azimuth dependence of intensities. Particularly, the parallel polarization pattern is sensitive to scatterer sizes, exhibiting good agreement with prior experimental measurements. Furthermore, the polarization patterns from the dysplastic and normal cells with different size distribution widths are calculated and analyzed. The results show that the polarization patterns of dysplastic and normal cells have distinct differences, which might be used for identification of the morphological structure changes of cancer, dysplasia, and regeneration cells.

Characterization of backscattering Mueller matrix patterns of highly scattering media with triple scattering assumption

We report on the use of an effective Mueller matrix to characterize the spatially-resolved diffuse backscattering Mueller matrix patterns of highly scattering media. The matrix expressions are based on assuming that the photon trajectories include only three scattering events. The numerically determined effective Mueller matrix elements are compared with the Monte Carlo simulated diffuse backscattering Mueller matrix for the polystyrene sphere suspensions. The results show that the two-dimensional intensity pattern maps of the effective Mueller matrix elements have good agreements with Monte Carlo simulations in both azimuthal structure symmetry and radial dependence. It is demonstrated that this effective Mueller matrix can be used to quantitatively predict and interpret the experimentally-determined diffuse backscattering Mueller matrix from highly scattering media.

Solvent Effects in Colloidal Crystal Deposition

The effects of solvent in the deposition of opal films from colloidal suspensions of polystyrene spheres have been studied with respect to the newly developed capillary deposition method and the well-known vertical deposition method. Both the surface morphology and the fine structure of the opal films are influenced by the solvent significantly. An optimized solvent mixture for fabrication of high-quality opal films has been found, and possible influence mechanisms of solvent are discussed.

Observation of Phase Conjugation of Light Arising from Enhanced Backscattering in a Random Medium

We measure the fundamental phase conjugation of a light field arising from enhanced backscattering in a multiple scattering medium. The measurements employ a two-window, time-resolved heterodyne method to suppress specularly reflected light and to determine the transverse Wigner function of the field, yielding joint amplitude and phase information. Using this method, a light field backscattered from an aqueous suspension of polystyrene spheres is found to reverse curvature relative to that of the incident field.

Electric field Monte Carlo simulation of polarized light propagation in turbid media

A Monte Carlo method based on tracing the multiply scattered electric field is presented to simulate the propagation of polarized light in turbid media. Multiple scattering of light comprises a series of updates of the parallel and perpendicular components of the complex electric field with respect to the scattering plane by the amplitude scattering matrix and rotations of the local coordinate system spanned by the unit vectors in the directions of the parallel and perpendicular electric field components and the propagation direction of light. The backscattering speckle pattern and the backscattering Mueller matrix of an aqueous suspension of polystyrene spheres in a slab geometry are computed using this Electric Field Monte Carlo (EMC) method. An efficient algorithm computing the Mueller matrix in the pure backscattering direction is detailed in the paper.

X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy studies of colloidal diffusion and the capillary modes of polymer films

The new method of X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) is introduced with reference to experiments studying diffusion in concentrated colloidal suspensions. It is shown that both the static structure and the diffusional dynamics of concentrated suspensions of polystyrene spheres in glycerol are well-described by theories developed for hard spheres. Next, XPCS experiments probing the dynamics of surface height fluctuations as a function of lateral length scale are described. Measurements were performed on polystyrene (PS) thin films of thicknesses varying from 840 to 3330 A ̊ at temperatures above the PS glass transition temperature. Within a range of wave vectors spanning 10 −4– 10 −3 A ̊ −1 , good agreement is found between the measured surface dynamics and the theory of overdamped thermal capillary waves on thin films. Quantitatively, the data can be accounted for using the viscosity of bulk PS.

Simultaneous light and small-angle neutron scattering on aggregating concentrated colloidal suspensions

A new sample environment has been developed in order to perform light and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) simultaneously on colloidal systems. The combination of SANS and diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) is of particular use in the high-concentration regime. DWS provides information on the local dynamic properties of the individual particles, whereas SANS gives access to the structural properties on similar length scales. The combination of both methods thus allows one to obtain structural and dynamic information over a very large range of length and time scales. Using this new setup, the onset of aggregation and the sol–gel transition in concentrated destabilized polystyrene sphere suspensions have been investigated. At the gel point, a dramatic change of the particle dynamics from diffusion to a subdiffusive arrested motion is observed. However, while the DWS measurements indicate that dramatic changes in the local dynamics occur over a long period, the SANS pattern quickly reaches its final appearance. The SANS experiments thus indicate that a fluid-like structure is arrested in the course of the gel formation. The data are found to be in good qualitative agreement with computer simulations.

Static and dynamic properties of highly turbid media determined by spatially resolved diffusive-wave spectroscopy.

We show that spatially resolved backscattering can be used for simultaneous measurements of static and dynamic properties of highly turbid media. The spatial variation of the backscattered intensity gives access to the transport men free path. The decay of the temporal intensity-intensity correlation function depends on the point of observation. This property can be used to probe complex dynamics with several time scales. The implementation of the method and the data analysis are tested on concentrated suspensions of polystyrene spheres.

Measurement of the gain volume in amplifying and scattering media by a two-beam spatial-correlation method.

We measured the size of the gain volume at the threshold of the spectral collapse in a solution of kiton red with colloidal suspensions of polystyrene spheres using a two-beam spatial-correlation method. In this method, the luminescence spectrum was measured as a function of the spatial separation of two excitation beams. It was found that the size of the gain volume at the threshold L(th), is proportional to the absorption length L(a), for different samples. Numerical simulations are also presented and the results are discussed on the basis of a relation L(th)=sqrt[3G(th)]sqrt[sigma(a)/sigma(s)]L(a), where sigma(s) and sigma(a) are stimulated emission and absorption cross sections of kiton red, respectively.

On some manifestations of similarity in multiple scattering of coherent light

The similarity of the decay tendencies of statistical moments of optical fields and their combinations (the mean intensity, the temporal correlation function of the field fluctuations and the degree of polarization) due to coherent light propagation in the disordered media has been considered by using a simple phenomenological model with exponential relaxation. A theoretical consideration has been carried out for the case of light propagation through a disordered slab using the diffusion approximation. The validity of the concept of similarity has been demonstrated in experiments with water suspensions of polystyrene spheres for the light transmission mode even in the case of non-diffusion regimes of light propagation through a scattering substance.