HMC Physics Colloquium

Tuesdays at 16:30 in Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning, Room B460

Thomas D. Donnelly

Harvey Mudd College

Production and Application of an Aerosol of Micron-Scale Particles

Sept. 27, 2005

A device that uses ultrasonic atomization of a liquid to produce an aerosol of micron-scale droplets will be discussed. This device represents a new approach to producing targets relevant to laser-driven fusion studies, and to the relatively untested subfield of nonlinear optics in which wavelength-scale targets are irradiated. The device has also made possible tests of fluid dynamics models in a novel phase space. The distribution of droplet sizes produced by the device and the threshold power required for droplet production are shown to follow scaling laws predicted by fluid dynamics.