Characterizing and tracking single colloidal particles with video holographic microscopy
Abstract.
We use digital holographic microscopy and Mie scattering theory to simultaneously characterize and track individual colloidal particles. Each holographic snapshot provides enough information to measure a colloidal sphere's radius and refractive index to within 1%, and simultaneously to measure its three-dimensional position with nanometer in-plane precision and 10 nanometer axial resolution.
In addition to their ubiquity in natural and industrial processes, colloidal particles have come to be prized as building blocks for photonic and optoelectronic devices, as probes for biological and macromolecular processes, and as model systems for fundamental studies of many-body physics. Many of these existing and emerging applications would benefit from more effective methods for tracking colloidal particles' motions in three dimensions. Others require better ways to measure particles' sizes and to characterize their optical properties, particularly if these measurements can be performed on individual particles in situ.
This Article demonstrates that images obtained with in-line holographic microscopy (1); (2) can be interpreted with Lorenz-Mie theory (3); (4) to obtain exceptionally precise measurements of individual colloidal spheres' dimensions and optical properties (5); (6) while simultaneously tracking their three dimensional motions with nanometer-scale spatial resolution at video rates (7). This method works over the entire range of particle sizes and compositions for which Mie scattering theory applies, and requires only a single calibration of the optical train's magnification. Unlike other light scattering techniques for measuring particle size (8) or refractive index, holographic particle analysis can be applied directly to individual particles in heterogeneous samples and also is compatible with scanned (9) and holographic (10) optical trapping.




Our holographic analysis instrument is based on a standard inverted
optical microscope (Nikon TE-2000U), with a collimated and attenuated
HeNe laser (Uniphase 5 mW, )
replacing the conventional incandescent illuminator and condenser.
As indicated schematically in Fig. 1,
light scattered by a particle propagates
to the microscope's focal plane, where it interferes with the
undiffracted portion of the beam.
The resulting interference pattern is magnified (1)
by the microscope's
objective lens (Nikon
NA 1.4 oil immersion Plan-Apo)
and video eyepiece (
) onto the sensor of a
grey-scale video camera (NEC TI-324AII).
This system provides a total magnification of
over a
field
of view.
Images are recorded as uncompressed digital video
at 30 frames/s using a commercial digital video recorder
(Pioneer 520HS).
Analyzing these digitized holograms yields the particle's
three-dimensional position, , its radius,
, and
its index of refraction,
.
We assume that the incident field,
,
is uniformly polarized in the
direction and
varies slowly enough over the size of the particle to
be treated as a plane wave propagating along the
direction.
Its amplitude
at position
in the plane
of the particle is thus the same as its
amplitude in the focal plane,
.
The wave propagates along the
direction with wave
number
, where
is the light's
wavelength in vacuum and
is the refractive index of the
medium.
For pure water at
,
at
.
The particle at scatters a portion of the
incident field into a highly structured outgoing wave,
,
where
accounts for variations in
the illumination, and where
is the
Lorenz-Mie scattering function (3); (4); (11),
which depends on
,
,
and
.
The scattered field generally covers a large
enough area at the focal plane that the interference pattern,
![]() |
(1) |
is dominated by long-wavelength variations in
.
The resulting distortions have been characterized (12),
but were not corrected in previous analyses of
(5); (7); (12); (6); (13).
Fortunately,
can be measured in an empty field of view, and the in-line hologram
can be normalized to obtain the undistorted image
![]() |
![]() |
(2) | ||
![]() |
(3) |
on the plane .
If we further assume
that the phase of the collimated incident beam
varies slowly over the field of view,
the normalized image is related to the calculated Mie scattering
pattern,
, in the plane
by
![]() |
(4) |

















Equation (4) can be fit to measured holograms by treating the particle's three-dimensional position, its radius and its refractive index as free parameters. Previous studies fit non-normalized holograms to phenomenological models (14); (15); (16); (6); (17); (13) or Mie scattering theory (18) for some of these quantities, but never all five. Because errors in the adjustable parameters are strongly correlated, failing to optimize them all simultaneously yields inaccurate results. Fitting instead to the full Lorenz-Mie theory (3); (4); (11); (19); (12); (20) provides more information with greater precision.
Numerical fits to digitized and normalized
holographic images
were performed with the Levenberg-Marquardt
nonlinear least-squares minimization algorithm
(21); (22); (23) using the camera's
measured signal-to-noise ratio to estimate single-pixel errors.
The deviates
for all of the fits we report
are of order unity, so that the calculated uncertainties
in the fit parameters accurately reflect their
precision (21); (23); (24).
These estimates incorporate the estimated
covariance of the adjustable parameters, so that they
also may be interpreted as the resolution of each parameter
(24).
Because the laser's wavelength and the medium's refractive index are both known, the only instrumental calibration is the overall magnification. This contrasts with other three-dimensional particle tracking techniques (25); (26); (27); (1); (2); (13), which require independent calibrations for each type of particle, particularly to track particles in depth.
The image in Fig. 2(a) shows
the normalized hologram, ,
for a polystyrene sulfate sphere
dispersed in water at height
above
the focal plane.
This sphere was obtained from a commercial sample with a nominal
diameter of
(Bangs Labs, Lot PS04N/6064).
The camera's electronic shutter was set for an exposure time
of 0.25 msec to minimize blurring due to Brownian motion
(28).
After normalizing the raw 8-bit digitized images,
each pixel contains roughly 5 significant bits of information.
The numerical fit to
faithfully reproduces
not just the position of the interference fringes, but also
their magnitudes.
The quality of the fit may be judged from the azimuthal
average;
the solid curve is an angular average about the
center of
, the dashed curves
indicate the standard deviations of the average,
and the discrete points are obtained from the fit.







The fit value for the radius, ,
falls in the sample's specified range,
which reflected a lower bound
of
obtained
with a Beckman Z2 Coulter Counter and an upper bound of
obtained by analytical centrifugation.
Agreement between the quoted and measured particle size suggests
that the present measurement's accuracy is comparable to its precision.
In that case, both
precision and accuracy surpass results previously obtained (6)
through analysis of
.
The trajectory-averaged value for the
refractive index,
,
also is consistent with the properties of polystyrene colloid inferred
from light scattering measurements on bulk dispersions
(29).
Comparable precision in measuring a single particle's
refractive index has been achieved by analyzing a
colloidal particle's dynamics in an optical trap (30).
This method only can be applied to particles with comparatively
small refractive indexes, however, because particles with relative
refractive indexes greater than are difficult to trap.
Holographic characterization, by contrast, requires only a single holographic
snapshot rather than an extensive time series,
does not require optical trapping, and so does not require
separate calibration of the trap, and is effective over a wider
range of particle sizes and refractive indexes.
The corresponding data in Fig. 2(b)
were obtained for a 1.45 diameter TiO
sphere
at
above the focal plane.
This sample was synthesized from titanium tetraethoxide and
was heat-treated to increase its density (31).
Strong forward scattering by such high-index particles
gives rise to imaging artifacts unless the medium is index matched
to the cover slip.
Dispersing the particle in immersion oil (
)
eliminates these artifacts, but introduces spherical aberration
for the lens we used,
which must be corrected (32) to obtain reliable
results.
The fit diameter of
and refractive index
of
are consistent with results obtained by electron
microscopy and bulk light scattering, respectively.
This result is noteworthy because no other single-particle
characterization method works for such high refractive indexes.
The data in Fig. 2(c) show results for a
nominally 5 silica sphere (Bangs Labs, Lot SS05N/4364)
dispersed in water at
above the focal plane.
The fit refractive index,
, is
appropriate for porous silica and the diameter,
agrees with the
value
obtained for this sample with a Beckman Z2 Coulter Counter.
The same fits resolve the particle's position with a precision of 1 nm in-plane and 10 nm along the optical axis. This substantially improves upon the typical 10 nm in-plane accuracy obtained with standard particle tracking techniques with the same microscope and camera (25). The difference can be ascribed to the larger number of pixels subtended by a holographic image, and to the images' strong intensity gradients, which constrain the fits. The estimated 10 nm axial resolution surpasses results obtained with morphometric axial particle tracking (25); (1); (2) by a factor of ten.
Nanometer-scale tracking resolution can be obtained under conventional illumination, but requires detailed calibrations for each particle (33). Still better in-plane spatial resolution can be obtained at much higher bandwidths through back-focal-plane interferometric methods (34), but also require accurate calibrations with piezo translators. Total internal reflection microscopy (TIRM) similarly offers sub-nanometer axial resolution (35); (36), but performs no better than conventional imaging methods for in-plane tracking.
An additional benefit of holographic imaging over other
particle-tracking techniques is its very large depth of focus.
Our system provides useful data over a range of more than
100 , which
contrasts with the
useful depth of focus
using conventional illumination (33) and the
100 nm range of TIRM (35); (36).
Holographic video microscopy lends itself to three-dimensional
particle tracking, as
the data in Fig. 3 demonstrate
for a colloidal silica sphere (Bangs Labs, Lot SS04N/5252)
dispersed in water.
This particle was lifted 30 above the focal plane
with an optical tweezer, and then released and allowed to sediment.
The images in Fig. 3(a) and (c) show the particle
near the beginning of its trajectory and near the end.
Fits to Eq. (4)
are shown in Figs. 3(b) and (d).
The particle's measured trajectory in 1/30 s intervals
during 15 s of its descent is plotted in
Fig. 3(e).
Its vertical position ,
Fig. 3(f),
displays fluctuations about a uniform sedimentation speed,
.
This provides an estimate
for the particle's density through
,
where
is the density of water and
is its viscosity at
, and where
is
the acceleration due to gravity.
The fit value for the particle's radius,
at
,
remained constant as the particle settled.
This value is consistent with the manufacturer's specified
radius of
, measured with a Beckman
Z2 Coulter Counter.
Accordingly, we obtain
,
which is a few percent smaller than the manufacturer's rating for
the sample.
However, the fit value for the refractive index,
, also is 1.5% below the rated value,
suggesting that the particle is indeed less dense
than specified.
The mean-square displacements,
,
of the components of the particle's position
provide additional consistency checks.
As the data in Fig. 3(g) show, fluctuations
in the trajectory's individual Cartesian components agree with each other,
and all three display linear Einstein-Smoluchowsky scaling,
, with a diffusion coefficient
. This is consistent
with the anticipated Stokes-Einstein value,
,
where
is Boltzmann's constant.
Using the methods of Ref. (28), we
then interpret the offsets obtained from linear fits to
to be consistent with no worse than 1 nm
accuracy for in-plane positions and 10 nm for
axial positions throughout the trajectory.
The optical characterization of the particle's properties
thus is consistent with the particle's measured dynamics.
We have successfully
applied holographic characterization to colloidal spheres as small
as 100 nm in diameter and as large as 10 .
Unlike model-based analytical methods, fitting to the exact
Lorenz-Mie scattering theory is robust and reliable over a
far wider range of particle sizes, provided that care is
taken to maintain numerical stability in calculating
(3); (19); (20).
Such numerical implementations have been reported for particles
as small as a few nanometers and as large as a few millimeters,
with relative refractive index ratios from less than
to
over 10, and with large imaginary refractive indexes.
In all cases, the instrumental magnification and field of view
must be selected to fit the sample.
The principal limitations of the six-parameter model in Eq. (4) are the assumptions that the scatterer is homogeneous and isotropic, and that its interface is sharp. These assumptions can be relaxed at the cost of increased complexity and reduced numerical robustness. For example, analytical results are available for core-shell particles (3), and for particles with more complex shapes (3); (11), such as ellipsoids, spherical clusters and cylindrical nanowires. All such elaborations involve additional adjustable parameters and thus are likely to pose computational challenges.
We have demonstrated that a single snapshot from an in-line holographic microscope can be used to measure a colloidal sphere's position and size with nanometer-scale resolution, and its refractive index with precision typically surpassing 1 percent.
A video stream of such images therefore constitutes a powerful six-dimensional microscopy for soft-matter and biological systems. Holographic particle tracking is ideal for three-dimensional microrheology, for measuring colloidal interactions and as force probes for biophysics. The methods we have described can be applied to tracking large numbers of particles in the field of view simultaneously for highly parallel measurements. Real-time single-particle characterization and tracking of large particle ensembles will be invaluable in such applications as holographic assembly of photonic devices (37); (38). Applied to more highly structured samples such as biological cells and colloidal heterostructures, they could be used as a basis for cytometric analysis or combinatorial synthesis (39).
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under
Grant Number DMR-0606415.
SHL acknowledges support of the Kessler Family Foundation.
GRY was supported by KBSI grant (N27073).
KSH and SMY have been supported by the NCRI Center
for Integrated Optofluidic Systems of MOST/KOSEF.
We are grateful to Ahmet Demirörs for synthesizing
the 1.4 diameter
TiO
particles.
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