Particle field imaging and characterization using VCSEL lasers for convergent multi-beam illumination

A method to provide multi-beam imaging of particles, comprising:

• generating a plurality of light beams that converge with each other to form a measurement volume within a particle field using a plurality of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers that are configured to provide uniformity in a background illumination of the measurement volume;
• and
• obtaining, by a digital camera, a first shadow image of a first particle passing through the measurement volume at a focal plane of a digital camera, wherein an intersection angle of the plurality of light beams is adjusted to remove shadow images of other particles outside the measurement volume.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising data that when accessed by a data processing system, cause the data processing system to perform a method to image particles comprising:

• generating a plurality of light beams converging with each other to form a measurement volume within a particle field using a plurality of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers that are configured to provide uniformity in a background illumination of the measurement volume;
• and
• obtaining, by a digital camera, a first shadow image of a first particle passing through the measurement volume at a focal plane of the digital camera, wherein an intersection angle of the plurality of light beams is adjusted to remove shadow images of other particles outside the measurement volume.