Non-spherical particle size estimation using supervised machine learning

Appl Opt. 2020 Apr 1;59(10):3237-3245. doi: 10.1364/AO.385750.

Abstract

The inverse scattering problem of non-spherical particle size estimation is solved using a series of supervised machine learning models trained on a library of light scattering data. By establishing a large library with spheres and spheroids as fundamental shapes and through optimization of model hyperparameters, the trained models are able to accurately estimate a precise equivalent volume sphere radius of particles from an external database and simulations, with root mean square errors of 2.6% and 1.9% for the external and simulated particles, respectively. It was found that classification via a k-nearest neighbor model and refinement via a trained ensemble regression model performed best for equivalent volume measurements.