Molecular tagging velocimetry
Molecular Tagging Velocimetry (MTV) is a specific form of flow velocimetry, a technique for determining the velocity of currents in fluids such as air and water. In its simplest form, a single "write" laser beam is shot once through the sample space. Along its path an optically induced chemical process is initiated, resulting in the creation of a new chemical species or in changing the internal energy state of an existing one, so that the molecules struck by the laser beam can be distinguished from the rest of the fluid. Such molecules are said to be "tagged."
This line of tagged molecules is now transported by the fluid flow. To obtain velocity information, images at two instances in time are obtained and analyzed (often by correlation of the image intensities) to determine the displacement. If the flow is three-dimensional or turbulent the line will not only be displaced, it will also be deformed.
There are three optical ways via which these tagged molecules can be visualized: fluorescence, phosphorescence and laser induced fluorescence (LIF). In all three cases molecules relax to a lower state and their excess energy is released as photons. In fluorescence this energy decay occurs rapidly (within s to s at atmospheric pressure), thus making "direct" fluorescence impractical for tagging. In phosphorescence the decay is slower, because the transition is quantum-mechanically forbidden.
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