Fundamental investigation of photoacoustic signal generation from single aerosol particles at varying relative humidity


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Date

2020-06

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

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Data

Abstract

Photoacoustic (PA) spectroscopy enjoys widespread applications across atmospheric sciences. However, experimental biases and limitations originating from environmental conditions and particle size distributions are not fully understood. Here, we combine single-particle photoacoustics with modulated Mie scattering to unravel the fundamental physical processes occurring during PA measurements on aerosols. We perform measurements on optically trapped droplets of varying sizes at different relative humidity. Our recently developed technique – photothermal single-particle spectroscopy (PSPS) – enables fundamental investigations of the interplay between the heat flux and mass flux from single aerosol particles. We find that the PA phase is more sensitive to water uptake by aerosol particles than the PA amplitude. We present results from a model of the PA phase, which sheds further light onto the dependence of the PA phase on the mass flux phenomena. The presented work provides fundamental insights into photoacoustic signal generation of aerosol particles.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

18

Pages / Article No.

100170

Publisher

Elsevier

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Photoacoustic spectroscopy; Modulated Mie scattering; Aerosols; Optical trapping; Counter-propagating tweezers; Relative humidity

Organisational unit

03961 - Signorell, Ruth / Signorell, Ruth check_circle

Notes

Funding

177479 - Fundamentals of Aerosol Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (SNF)
172472 - Phase Transitions of Ultrafine Aerosol Particles: Condensation, Freezing, and Metal Formation in Confined Systems (SNF)

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