光学顕微鏡動画に潜む結晶核生成前の溶質動態を可視化する

抄録

  I would like to introduce the particle image diffusometry (PID) as its inventor. PID enables the visualization of pre-nucleation solutes through their Brownian motion. The hardware setup is a standard optical microscope and a camera to capture the movie data. PID does not assume fluorescent labeling of solute molecules, but the data analysis is of the central importance in this methodology. The fundamental theoretical principle roots back to the statistical physics of well-known dynamic light scattering (DLS), but the visualization of spatio-temporal patterns is realized by the invention of a simple algorithm. In contrast to the single molecule/particle tracking (SMT/SPT), PID does not track the bright points but evaluates the spatio-temporal fluctuation of time-series images. This is more advantageous for the analysis of crystallization phenomena, where high concentration of solutes often hinders the SMT/SPT approach. Looking back the long histories of SMT/SPT and DLS, there will be plenty of room on the avenue opened by PID.