Effects of gravity on the shape of liquid droplets

    Authors

    H. W. Ren; S. Xu;S. T. Wu

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Opt. Commun.

    Keywords

    Liquid droplet; Droplet surface; Surface tension; Focal length; Gravity; effect; CONTACT-ANGLE; BROAD-BAND; LENS; MICROLENS; Optics

    Abstract

    We report the gravity effects on the shape and focal length changes of liquid droplets. As the droplet size decreases, the gravity effect is gradually weakened. Moreover, if the outside space of the droplet is filled with another immiscible liquid rather than air, the filled liquid helps to offset the gravity effect even though their densities do not match well. Good agreement between experiment and simulation is obtained. The negligible gravity effect enables us to improve the optical performances of the liquid lens by choosing suitable liquids without worrying their density mismatch. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Optics Communications

    Volume

    283

    Issue/Number

    17

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    3255

    Last Page

    3258

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000279520800007

    ISSN

    0030-4018

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