Abstract

A new integral transform for recovering size information from the optical transform pattern of spherical particles is shown. Our inversion relies on the assumption that the total transform intensity is simply an integral over the size distribution multiplied by an Airy function (transform intensity for a single particle). By multiplying the intensity by an appropriate kernel and integrating over the diffraction angle up to a cutoff value, we can obtain information about the size and number of particles present. Although similar to the inversion method of Shifrin,¹ our method does not require a derivative of the transform pattern and thus may be more applicable to cases of noisy data. Two computer simulations of our transform inversion are presented. The first uses a continuous collection in size of particles and the second is a finite collection of single sized particles.

© 1989 Optical Society of America