Dataset for Light Interference with Small Particles Experiment

This dataset supplements the article:
Voronkin, O., & Lushchin, S. (2025). Demonstration Experiment and Theoretical Model of Light Interference with Small Particles. Physics Education, 60(4), 045002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/adcf6d

It provides experimental data and images from a light interference study using powdered sugar particles on a 2.0 mm glass plate. The dataset includes a photograph of the interference pattern, microscope images, ImageJ-processed images, particle size measurements, and a LabPlot project file for particle size distribution.

Contents of the dataset:

1. 'rings_2mm.jpg': Original photograph of the interference pattern formed by laser radiation (λ = 0.6328 μm) interacting with powdered sugar particles on a 2.0 mm thick glass plate. Captured on 2023-03-30 at 09:41:11 using a Canon EOS 6D Mark II with a 70 mm focal length, 0.5 s exposure, f/4 aperture, and ISO 100.
2. 'particles_microscope_1280x.jpg': Original microscope image of powdered sugar particles captured at ×1280 magnification using MMU-5C metallographic microscopy and a UCMOS05100KPA digital camera. The image was acquired on 2024-12-30 at 11:41:20 with an exposure time of 0.35 seconds. No digital processing was applied.
3. 'particles_preprocessed_1280x.jpg': Pre-processed version of the same microscope image at ×1280 magnification. Contrast and sharpness were enhanced in a raster graphics editor to improve particle visibility and support more accurate segmentation during subsequent analysis in ImageJ. A scale bar indicating 10 µm was added to the image.
4. 'particles_processed_imagej_1280x.tif':  8-bit image processed in ImageJ at ×1280 magnification for particle segmentation and quantitative analysis. The file contains metadata related to the segmented particles, including their boundaries and assigned IDs, allowing re-analysis within ImageJ.
5. 'particles_highlighted_imagej_1280x.png': ImageJ-processed image at ×1280 magnification showing visually segmented and numbered particles. 
6. 'particle_sizes_imagej.csv': Table of particle size data exported from ImageJ, including parameters such as Area, Perimeter, Circularity, Roundness, Aspect Ratio, Solidity, X and Y coordinates, Minimum, Maximum, and calculated equivalent particle diameters (in µm).
7. 'LabPlot project particle_distribution_plot.lml':  LabPlot project file containing a histogram of the particle size distribution based on the calculated equivalent particle diameters (in µm).