Common radiation path for acquiring particle information by means of direct image evaluation and differential image analysis

The invention relates to a device (100) for acquiring information indicative of a particle size and/or shape for particles in a sample, said device (100) comprising an electromagnetic radiation source (102) for generating electromagnetic primary radiation (108), an electromagnetic radiation detector (104) for detecting electromagnetic secondary radiation (110) generated by said electromagnetic primary radiation (108) interacting with the sample, and an acquisition device (106) that is configured to acquire the information indicative of the particle size and/or shape based on the detected electromagnetic secondary radiation (110), said acquisition device (106) being designed to acquire the information, selectively, first (112) by means of identification and determination of the size and/or shape of the particles on a detector image generated from the electromagnetic secondary radiation (110), and/or secondly (114) from temporal changes in the electromagnetic secondary radiation (110) between detector images that were generated at different detection times.