Multiangle dynamic light scattering analysis using an improved recursion algorithm

Multiangle dynamic light scattering (MDLS) compensates for the low information in a single-angle dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurement by combining the light intensity autocorrelation functions from a number of measurement angles. Reliable estimation of PSD from MDLS measurements requires accurate determination of the weighting coefficients and an appropriate inversion method. We propose the Recursion Nonnegative Phillips-Twomey (RNNPT) algorithm, which is insensitive to the noise of correlation function data, for PSD reconstruction from MDLS measurements. The procedure includes two main steps: 1) the calculation of the weighting coefficients by the recursion method, and 2) the PSD estimation through the RNNPT algorithm. And we obtained suitable regularization parameters for the algorithm by using MR-L-curve since the overall computational cost of this method is sensibly less than that of the L-curve for large problems. Furthermore, convergence behavior of the MR-L-curve method is in general superior to that of the L-curve method and the error of MR-L-curve method is monotone decreasing. First, the method was evaluated on simulated unimodal lognormal PSDs and multimodal lognormal PSDs. For comparison, reconstruction results got by a classical regularization method were included. Then, to further study the stability and sensitivity of the proposed method, all examples were analyzed using correlation function data with different levels of noise. The simulated results proved that RNNPT method yields more accurate results in the determination of PSDs from MDLS than those obtained with the classical regulation method for both unimodal and multimodal PSDs.