Open AccessLongitudinal optical trapping and sizing of aerosol droplets
Author(s) -
A. E. Carruthers,
Jonathan P. Reid,
Andrew J. Orr-Ewing
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.18.014238
Subject(s) - aerosol , optical tweezers , optics , trapping , wavelength , scattering , light beam , light scattering , coalescence (physics) , mie scattering , gaussian beam , materials science , beam (structure) , physics , ecology , astrobiology , meteorology , biology
We present evidence that aerosol droplets, approximately 1-2microm in diameter, can be optically bound over a 4mm distance within a volume formed by the overlap of the central cores and rings of two counterpropagating Bessel beams. The sizes of the individual polydisperse aerosol particles can be estimated from the angular variation of the elastic light scattering. Scattered light from the two orthogonally polarized trapping beams and from a Gaussian probe beam of different wavelength can be used to provide independent estimations of size. The coalescence of two droplets was observed and characterized.