Photoacoustic correlation spectroscopy and its application to low-speed flow measurement

Opt Lett. 2010 Apr 15;35(8):1200-2. doi: 10.1364/OL.35.001200.

Abstract

A photoacoustic correlation technique, inspired by its optical counterpart-the fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS)-was tested for the first time, to our knowledge, to demonstrate the feasibility of low-speed flow measurement based on photoacoustic signal detection. A pulsed laser was used to probe the flow of light-absorbing beads. A photoacoustic correlation system of 0.8 s temporal resolution was built and flow speeds ranging from 249 to 14.9 microm/s with corresponding flow times from 4.42 to 74.1 s were measured. The experiment serves as a proof of concept for photoacoustic correlation spectroscopy, which may have many potential applications similar to the FCS.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Blood Circulation
  • Calibration
  • Erythrocytes / physiology
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Humans
  • Microscopy
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence
  • Spectrum Analysis / methods*