Photophoretic spectroscopy in atmospheric chemistry – high-sensitivity measurements of light absorption by a single particle

The role these particles play in the global radiative balance and in the climate system is still uncertain. To better quantify their radiative forcing due to aerosol-radiation interactions, we need to improve process level understanding of aging processes, which lead to either ‘browning’ or ‘bleaching’ of organic aerosols.

Currently available laboratory techniques aim to simulate atmospheric aerosol aging and measure the evolving light absorption, but suffer from low sensitivity and precision. This study describes the use of electrodynamic balance photophoretic spectroscopy (EDB-PPS) for high sensitivity and high precision measurements of light absorption by a single particle. We demonstrate the retrieval of time-evolving imaginary part of the refractive index for a single levitated particle in the range of 10-4 to 10-5 with uncertainties of less than 25% and 60%, respectively.