Abstract

We have been investigating how the accuracy of results from our photon correlation experiments depend on integration time of the correlogram and on the specific fitting technique we use to extract the decay rate from single-exponential correlograms. Understanding how to obtain the maximum information from correlation functions measured in the least amount of time is important for experiments whose duration is limited, such as Zeno, our project to build a photon-correlation light-scattering instrument for a Space Shuttle mission. That experiment measures the decay rates of critical fluctuations in xenon near its liquid-vapor critical point.[1] Specifically, we wish to obtain decay rate measurements accurate to 1%.

© 1992 Optical Society of America