Explosive Vaporization of a Liquid Water Beam by Irradiation with a 10.6 μm Infrared Laser

✍ Scribed by Kenzo Hiraoka; Konosuke Murata; Keiichi Aizawa; Fumiko Matsushita; Hiroko Fukasawa; Tetsuya Sato

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 367 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0951-4198
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0231(199703)11:5<474::aid-rcm845>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

A study was made of the explosive evaporation of a liquid beam using a 10.6 µm infrared laser. When a liquid water beam with a diameter larger than 50 µm was irradiated by a 50 W infrared laser in a direction at right angles to the liquid beam, plumes (i.e. jetlike streams), due to the explosive vaporization of the liquid, were observed from both the illuminated and the shadow faces of the liquid beam. When the diameter of the liquid beam was decreased ( Ϲ 20µm), the generated plume became non-directional and the droplets formed became much finer. A minimum time required for the explosive vaporization of the liquid water beam was found to be ~0.7 µs for a 50 W infrared laser with a laser spot of 0.1 mm diameter. Ions formed from a laser-irradiated aqueous solution were found to increase with increase of voltage applied to the liquid.