Patent ID: 8821799

Claim:
A method of characterizing particles, the method comprising: creating relative movement between at least one particle and an excitation region; generating a spatially modulated excitation pattern within the excitation region, the spatially modulated excitation pattern including multiple high excitation areas interspersed with multiple low excitation areas, the spatially modulated excitation pattern extending along a length of the excitation region; stimulating energy emission from the particle as the particle moves along the length of the excitation region; detecting the energy emission from the particle using a detector; generating a detector signal that is time modulated according to the spatially modulated excitation pattern; analyzing the time modulated detector signal; and characterizing the particle based on the analysis, wherein generating the spatially modulated excitation pattern within the excitation region comprises generating the spatially modulated excitation pattern based on at least one of an electric field, a magnetic field, and an acoustic standing wave.