A thin liquid film and its effects in an atomic force microscopy measurement

Recently, it has been observed that a liquid film spreading on a sample surface will significantly distort atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. In order to elaborate on the effect, we establish an equation governing the deformation of liquid film under its interaction with the AFM tip and substrate. A key issue is the critical liquid bump height y(0c) at which the liquid film jumps to contact the AFM tip. It is found that there are three distinct regimes in the variation of y(0c) with film thickness H, depending on Hamaker constants of tip, sample and liquid. Noticeably, there is a characteristic thickness H* physically defining what a thin film is; namely, once the film thickness H is the same order as H* , the effect of film thickness should be taken into account. The value of H* is dependent on Hamaker constants and liquid surface tension as well as tip radius.

Subcooled pool boiling on thin wire in microgravity

A new set of experimental data of subcooled pool boiling on a thin wire in rnicrogravity aboard the 22nd Chinese recoverable satellite is reported in the present paper. The temperature-control led heating method is used. The results of the experiments in normal gravity before and after the flight experiment are also presented, and compared with those in microgravity. The working fluid is degassed R113 at 0.1 MPa and subcooled by 26 degrees C nominally. A thin platinum wire of 60 mu m in diameter and 30 mm in length is simultaneously used as heater and thermometer. It is found that the heat transfer of nucleate pool boiling is slightly enhanced in microgravity comparing with those in normal gravity. It is also found that the correlation of Lienhard and Dhir can predict the CHF with good agreement, although the range of the dimensionless radius is extended by three or more decades above the originally set limit. Three critical bubble diameters are observed in microgravity, which divide the observed vapor bubbles into four regimes with different sizes. Considering the Marangoni effect, a qualitative model is proposed to reveal the mechanism underlying the bubble departure processes, and a quantitative agreement can also be acquired.

Dynamics of discrete bubble in nucleate pool boiling on thin wires in microgravity

A space experiment on bubble behavior and heat transfer in subcooled pool boiling phenomenon has been performed utilizing the temperature-controlled pool boiling (TCPB) device both in normal gravity in the laboratory and in microgravity aboard the 22(nd) Chinese recoverable satellite. The fluid is degassed R113 at 0.1 MPa and subcooled by 26 degrees C nominally. A thin platinum wire of 60 mu m in diameter and 30 mm in length is simultaneously used as heater and thermometer. Only the dynamics of the vapor bubbles, particularly the lateral motion and the departure of discrete vapor bubbles in nucleate pool boiling are reported and analyzed in the present paper. It's found that these distinct behaviors can be explained by the Marangoni convection in the liquid surrounding vapor bubbles. The origin of the Marangoni effect is also discussed.

Experimental Study on the Combined Evaporation Effect and Thermocapillary Convection in a Thin Liquid Layer

The coupling mechanisms and flow characteristics of thermocapillary convection in a thin liquid layer with evaporating interface were studied. The planar liquid layer, with the upper surface open to air, was imposed externally horizontal temperature differences. The measured average evaporating rates and interfacial temperature profiles indicated the relative importance of evaporation effect and thermocapillary convection under different temperature gradients. A temperature jump was found at the interface, which was thought to be related to the influence of evaporation effect. All above mentioned results were repeated in a rarely evaporating liquid to compare the influence of evaporation effect.

Ion cascade acceleration from the interaction of a relativistic femtosecond laser pulse with a narrow thin target

Particle-in-cell simulations are performed to study the acceleration of ions due to the interaction of a relativistic femtosecond laser pulse with a narrow thin target. The numerical results show that ions can be accelerated in a cascade by two electrostatic fields if the width of the target is smaller than the laser beam waist. The first field is formed in front of the target by the central part of the laser beam, which pushes the electron layer inward. The major part of the abaxial laser energy propagates along the edges to the rear side of the target and pulls out some hot electrons from the edges of the target, which form another electrostatic field at the rear side of the target. The ions from the front surface are accelerated stepwise by these two electrostatic fields to high energies at the rear side of the target. The simulations show that the largest ion energy gain for a narrow target is about four times higher than in the case of a wide target. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Neutron source from thin foil confined by two laser pulses

Neutron production from a thin deuterium-tritium (D-T) foil irradiated by two intense femtosecond laser pulses from opposite sides with zero phase difference is studied analytically and numerically. For the interaction of a laser pulse of amplitude a = 7, focal area 100 mu m(2) and areal density 4.4 x 10(18) cm(-2) with a D-T plasma foil, about 1.17 x 10(21) neutron s(-1) can be obtained, much more than from other methods. The profiles of the ion and electron densities are also calculated.

Generation of periodic ultrashort electron bunches and strongly asymmetric ion Coulomb explosion in nanometer foils interacting with ultra-intense laser pulse

The interaction of a linearly polarized intense laser pulse with an ultrathin nanometer plasma layer is investigated to understand the physics of the ion acceleration. It is shown by the computer simulation that the plasma response to the laser pulse comprises two steps. First, due to the vxB effect, electrons in the plasma layer are extracted and periodic ultrashort relativistic electron bunches are generated every half of a laser period. Second, strongly asymmetric Coulomb explosion of ions in the foil occurs due to the strong electrostatic charge separation, once the foil is burnt through. Followed by the laser accelerated electron bunch, the ion expansion in the forward direction occurs along the laser beam that is much stronger as compared to the backward direction. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Linear chirp control of infrared signal in a biased semiconductor thin film

Ultrashort light-matter interactions between a linear chirped pulse and a biased semiconductor thin film GaAs are investigated. Using different chirped pulses, the dependence of infrared spectra on chirp rate is demonstrated for a 5 fs pulse. It is found that the infrared spectra can be controlled by the linear chirp of the pulse. Furthermore, the infrared spectral intensity could be enhanced by two orders of magnitude via appropriately choosing values of the linear chirp rates. Our results suggest a possible scheme to control the infrared signal.

Ultrafast dynamics in ZnO thin films irradiated by femtosecond lasers

The damage morphologies, threshold fluences in ZnO films were studied with femtosecond laser pulses. Time-resolved reflectivity and transmissivity have been measured by the pump-probe technique at different pump fluences and wavelengths. The results indicate that two-phase transition is the dominant damage mechanism, which is similar to that in narrow band gap semiconductors. The estimated energy loss rate of conduction electrons is 1.5 eV/ps. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Acceleration of ultra-thin electron layer.Analytical treatment compared with 1D-PIC simulation

In this paper, we apply an analytical model [V.V. Kulagin et al., Phys. Plasmas 14, 113101 (2007)] to describe the acceleration of an ultra-thin electron layer by a schematic single-cycle laser pulse and compare with one-dimensional particle-in-cell (1D-PIC) simulations. This is in the context of creating a relativistic mirror for coherent backscattering and supplements two related papers in this EPJD volume. The model is shown to reproduce the 1D-PIC results almost quantitatively for the short time of a few laser periods sufficient for the backscattering of ultra-short probe pulses.

Time response of optical switching properties of Sb thin films under focused laser pulses

The time response of optical switching properties of Sb thin films under focused laser pulses is investigated. The results show that the response course can be divided into onset, opening, and closing stages. Formulas for their lengths are given. The onset and opening times decrease with increasing pumping light power density. The closing time is about 150 ns. For optical memory, if the power density of the readout and recording lasers changes from 5 x 10(9) to 15 x 10(9) W/m(2), the onset time changes from 2.5 to 0.30 mus, and the opening time is on the nanosecond scale. (C) 2003 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Laser-induced changes on the complex refractive indices of phase-change thin film

The refractive indices of crystalline phase-change films are usually obtained by thermal-induced crystallization. However, this is not accurate, because the crystallization of phase-change film in rewritable optical disks is laser induced. In this study, we use the initializer to crystallize the phase-change films. The dependence of the refractive index n and the extinction coefficient k of the phase-change films on the initialization conditions are studied. Remarkable changes of the refractive indices (especially k) are found when the initialization laser power density is 6.63 mW/mum(2) and the initialization velocity is 4.0 m/s. At the same time, the structure changes of the phase-change films are also studied. This dependence is explained by the structure change of the films. These results are significant in improving the accuracy of optical design and the thermal simulation of phase-change optical disks, as well as in the study of phase-change optical disks at shorter wavelengths. (C) 2003 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Nonlinear response and optical limiting in SrBi2Ta2O9 thin films

SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT) thin films on quartz substrates were prepared by use of the pulsed-laser deposition technique. The nonlinear refractive indices, n(2), Of the SBT films were measured by use of z-scan techniques with picosecond pulses. Large negative nonlinear refractive indices of 3.84 and 3.58 cm(2)/GW were obtained for the wavelengths 532 nm and 1.064 mum, respectively. The two-photon absorption coefficient was determined to be 7.3 cm/GW for 532 nm. The limiting behavior of SBT thin film on a quartz substrate was investigated in an f/5 defocusing geometry by use of 38-ps-duration, 532-nm, 1.064-mum. laser excitation. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.

Optical near-field simulation of Sb thin film thermal lens and its application in optical recording

Using the finite-difference-time-domain method, the near-field optical distribution and properties of Sb thin film thermal lens are calculated and simulated. The results show as follows. Within the near-field distance to the output plane of thermal lens, the spot size is approximately 100 nm, and its intensity is greatly enhanced, which is higher than that of incident light. The spot shape gradually changes from ellipse to round at the distance of more than 12 nm to the output plane. The above-simulated results are further demonstrated by the static optical recording experiment. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.