Contact-free holographic imaging of aerosol particles from mobile platforms

An opto-electric system comprising:

• an optics compartment that shapes, combines, and redirects a pair of laser beams;
• a sensing compartment operatively connected to the optics compartment, wherein the sensing compartment comprises:
• a pair of laser sources that generate the pair of laser beams that are directed to the optics compartment, wherein a first laser beam of the pair of laser beams follows a trigger-beam path, and wherein a second laser beam of the pair of laser beams follows a hologram-beam path;
• a sensing region containing a particle, wherein the sensing region receives the redirected pair of laser beams causing the particle to become an illuminated particle;
• an optical sensor that detects the illuminated particle and creates a contrast hologram comprising an interference pattern of the illuminated particle;
• and
• an electronics compartment operatively connected to the sensing compartment, wherein the electronics compartment comprises:
• a signal generator that generates a beam trigger signal upon the particle becoming illuminated;
• a control system that receives the beam trigger signal, and creates a delay in a pulse of the second laser beam;
• and
• a memory device that stores the contrast hologram of the illuminated particle;
• and
• a processor that creates an image of the illuminated particle based on the contrast hologram.

A method of generating a contrast hologram in a portable device, the method comprising:

• receiving a pulsed laser;
• directing the pulsed laser as a reference wave towards an optical sensor;
• receiving, in a sensing cavity, an aerosol particle;
• illuminating the aerosol particle by the reference wave;
• generating an object wave by an illuminated particle;
• directing the object wave towards the optical sensor;
• and
• generating a contrast hologram of the illuminated particle based on interference patterns produced by unscattered and particle-scattered light created when the aerosol particle is illuminated.