Development of a system for studying the morphology and dynamics of agglomerated flame particulates by use of dynamic light scattering

An experimental system for the study of the morphological and dynamic properties of flame-generated agglomerates by use of both polarized (vertical-vertical polarization orientation) and depolarized (vertical-horizontal polarization orientation) dynamic light scattering (DLS) was developed and tested. The system consists of a flame reactor for generating chainlike agglomerates of Fe2O3 in an Fe(CO)(5)- seeded CO-O-2 diffusion flame and a light-scattering spectrometer for performing polarized and depolarized DLS measurements of the agglomerates' dynamic properties. It is demonstrated for the first time that one can successfully obtain depolarized DLS correlation functions from a flame environment by combining the results of a series of measurements obtained using a cross-correlation detection system. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.