Holographic time-resolved particle tracking by means of three-dimensional volumetric deconvolution

TL;DR

This paper introduces a three-dimensional volumetric deconvolution method for holographic particle image velocimetry, enabling precise, simultaneous resolution of particles in 3D space and tracking their trajectories over time.

Contribution

The novel application of volumetric deconvolution to holographic data significantly improves particle resolution and enables accurate 3D, time-resolved particle tracking.

Findings

All particles in the hologram are resolved simultaneously in 3D.

Time-resolved trajectories of particles are successfully obtained.

Enhanced resolution over traditional holographic methods.

Abstract

Holographic particle image velocimetry allows tracking particle trajectories in time and space by means of holography. However, the drawback of the technique is that in the three-dimensional particle distribution reconstructed from a hologram, the individual particles can hardly be resolved due to the superimposed out-of-focus signal from neighboring particles. We demonstrate here a three-dimensional volumetric deconvolution applied to the reconstructed wavefront which results in resolving all particles simultaneously in three-dimensions. Moreover, we apply the three-dimensional volumetric deconvolution to reconstructions of a time-dependent sequence of holograms of an ensemble of polystyrene spheres moving in water. From each hologram we simultaneously resolve all particles in the ensemble in three dimensions and from the sequence of holograms we obtain the time-resolved trajectories of individual polystyrene spheres.