C. McMahon: Widefield Spectroscopic Measurements of Single Absorbers

This project's goal is to measure the optical properties of single particle absorbers, such as individual bacteria or nanoparticles. The proposed method will utilize unique defocus symmetries in a 3D brightfield volume to combat the difficulties of decoupling extinction measurements into absorption and scattering components. This experiment will be conducted with varying ultraviolet wavelengths as a method for spectroscopic classification of a mixture of isolated, unlabeled absorbers.