ODT - THESIS TOPIC: Zoltán Bozóki: Development of improved photoacoustic ...

Development of improved photoacoustic detection schemes for measuring the optical properties of aerosol particles with increased accuracy and better resolution

THESIS TOPIC PROPOSAL

Institute: University of Szeged
environmental sciences
Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences

Thesis supervisor: Zoltán Bozóki
Location of studies (in Hungarian): SZTE
Abbreviation of location of studies: SZTE

Description of the research topic:

Nowadays photoacoustic (PA) is a widely used method for measuring the optical absorption properties of aerosol particles. However for most of the aerosol types, except for those with very strong mass specific optical absorption, accurate PA measurement can only be performed whenever the measurement is averaged over a relatively long time period or over a large number of particles. However either the temporal or ensemble averaging results in a loss of valuable information on the particles. Therefore it is essential to increase the sensitivity of the photoacoustic method, because in this way excessive averaging can be avoided and thus either particle dynamics or single particle properties can be studied by the method. Further possibilities to increase the temporal or spatial resolution of the method are the reduction of the volume in which the PA signal is generated or the pre-selection of particles for the measurement with identical properties.
The proposed research work of the candidate includes PA system development and combining PA method with alternative measurement techniques in order to increase the information content of the PA measurements.

Required language skills: angol
Number of students who can be accepted: 1

Deadline for application: 2020-02-01