Abstract

A strategy is described for studying the hydrodynamics of a water droplet being irradiated by a high energy laser beam. The electromagnetic fields inside the (dielectric) drop are considered as perturbations around the Mie fields. Our approach is shown to work for times much smaller than the conventional characteristic hydrodynamic time, when heating effects can be safely ignored and polarization/electrostriction effects dominate. Our linearized electrohydrodynamic equations yield a density increasing toward the surface, away from the center of the drop.

© 1985 Optical Society of America

Explosion of water droplets

Shirish M. Chitanvis
Appl. Opt. 25(11) 1837-1839 (1986)

Water droplets irradiated by a pulsed CO₂ laser: comparison of computed temperature contours with explosive vaporization patterns

J. D. Pendleton
Appl. Opt. 24(11) 1631-1637 (1985)

Nonlinear interaction of KrF laser radiation with small water droplets

Dennis R. Alexander, John P. Barton, Scott A. Schaub, and G. M. Holtmeier
Appl. Opt. 30(12) 1455-1460 (1991)

Investigation of laser-induced destruction of droplets by acoustic methods

A. A. Zemlyanov, Yu. E. Geints, A. M. Kabanov, and R. L. Armstrong
Appl. Opt. 35(30) 6062-6068 (1996)

Energy balance in laser-irradiated vaporizing droplets

Andrew Zardecki and Robert L. Armstrong
Appl. Opt. 27(17) 3690-3695 (1988)