Aerosol-induced laser breakdown thresholds: effect of resonant particles

Determining the composition of aqueous microdroplets with broad-band cavity enhanced Raman scattering

We demonstrate that broad-band cavity enhanced Raman scattering (CERS) can be used to determine the composition of binary alcohol-water aerosol droplets over a wide compositional range from 10% v/v to 90% v/v. In contrast to conventional CERS using narrow-band laser excitation, the excitation is provided by a broad-band Nd:YAG pumped dye laser. A change in the spontaneous spectrum resulting from the change of the linewidth of the excitation laser permits tuning of the sensitivity range over which the droplet composition can be determined by CERS. We demonstrate that this change in sensitivity can be estimated using a simulation of the change in the sensitivity to the species in spontaneous bulk phase measurements. We further show that the compositional calibration is independent of droplet radius in the range 33-56 microm. The compositional range over which CERS is sensitive can be controlled and optimised for any particular application by exploiting the dependence of the stimulated Raman scattering on the laser linewidth and wavelength. Thus, quantitative measurements of droplet composition can be made in situ with high accuracy, providing a valuable new tool for analysing aerosol composition.

Stimulated light scattering in transparent liquid particles: effect of the descartes ring

We consider some peculiarities of the evolution of processes of stimulated scattering in liquid transparent particles in the presence of ponderomotive action of a light field. We observed the occurrence of sharp deformations in the Descartes ring zone, which exceeds by more than 1 order of magnitude the deformations of the remaining particle surface. Investigation of the dynamics of the evolution of droplet deformations has made it possible to consider these deformations as the main cause of suppression of stimulated scattering indicated in the experiments. An analytical expression was derived to evaluate the decrease of the Q factor of droplet quasi-normal eigenmodes caused by perturbation of the particle shape from the spherical. Our study revealed that the larger the Q factor of the droplet eigenmodes, the greater the influence of surface deformation.

Random occurrence of stimulated Raman scattering emission from liquid water microdroplets

Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) spectra from micrometer-sized water droplets have been obtained in the range 2100 < Δν < 5100 cm-(1). A number of Raman bands have been individually identified (to our knowledge, for the first time), corresponding to fundamental OH- and OD-stretching vibrations and to vibrations of hydrogen-bonded molecular complexes. All bands exhibit the intense morphologydependent resonance features that are characteristic of SRS emission from microdroplets. SRS emission is apparently random from all bands; however, the frequency of occurrence varies widely, from bands where emission is seen on practically every laser shot to bands where emission is seen only once in > 10(4) laser shots. Possible causes of these noteworthy emission features are discussed, including the difficulty of coupling weak spontaneous Raman emission to both the intense pump beam and the morphologydependent resonances within the droplet.

Laser-induced ion formation thresholds of aerosol particles in a vacuum

Using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, we have measured the threshold for producing ions from various aerosol particles in avacuum with laser radiation at 248 nm,308 nm, and 10.6µm. In addition, a limited amount of similar data were taken at 193 and 337 nm. At 10.6 µm, two thresholds were observed: one near 3 GW/cm(2), which corresponds to partial ionization, and another at 6 GW/cm(2), which we attribute to plasma formation. At 308 nm, the threshold for ion production is on the order of 200 MW/cm(2). Shorter wavelengths require even less energy, with < 100 MW/cm(2) yielding normal molecular-mass spectra and approximately 500 MW/cm(2) fragmenting the sample to atomic ions.

Observations of stimulated Raman scattering and laser-induced breakdown in millimeter-sized droplets

We report the first observations, to our knowledge, of nonlinear optical effects in large (millimeter-sized) droplets. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and laser-induced breakdown (LIB) are simultaneously observed in acoustically levitated millimeter-sized glycerol droplets irradiated by either a frequency-doubled (532-nm) or a frequency-tripled (355-nm) Nd:YAG laser. The two processes, which occur above a nearly coincident irradiation threshold, are conjectured to arise from a common initiation mechanism: self-focusing. LIB generates vapor bubbles within the droplet, resulting in the quenching of SRS emission.