Measurement of circular intensity differential scattering (CIDS) from single optically trapped biological particles

The circular intensity differential scattering (CIDS), which is the normalized Mueller matrix element -S₁₄/S₁₁, has been measured from single biological particles as a function of scattering angle. CIDS is valuable for its potential in detecting chiral particles that may include the helical structures of DNA or RNA molecules in biological samples, and as such is a potential method for detecting biological particles. Optical trapping is employed to levitate single particles within a custom-designed elliptical reflector for CIDS measurements. The advantage of optical levitation in light-scattering measurements is that single particles can be suspended in air with sufficient working distance to prevent interference from the suspending apparatus. To measure the phase function, the reflector is used to collect the angle-dependent scattering signals. We demonstrated that we can obtain two-dimensional angular optical scattering (TAOS) patterns that cover a wide angular range from single levitated particles. These TAOS patterns are generated using 532 nm illumination of left-handed and right-handed circular polarizations and recorded from trapped single particles (silica, English Oak, Ragweed, Mulberry, Glycine, and l-Aspartic acid).