The instrument, which is based on a conventional optical microscope, uses a laser light source to illuminate nano-scale particles within a 0.3 ml sample introduced to the viewing unit with a disposable syringe. Enhanced by a near perfect black background, particles appear individually as point-scatterers moving under Brownian motion.                 
                 
Polydisperse and multimodal systems are instantly recognizable and quantifiable, as are agglomerates and contaminants.                 
                 
The image analysis Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) software suite allows users to automatically track and size nanoparticles on an individual basis. Results are displayed as a frequency size distribution graph and output to spreadsheet. In addition, video clips of images may be captured and archived for future reference.                 
                 
The LM10 comes with the option of a higher specification (sCMOS) camera which improves the sensitivity of the standard LM10 by a factor of x100. Practically, this means that the lower limit of detection for a particular particle type has been improved by a factor of 2 when compared to the standard instrument.