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Saturday, January 10, 2015

Reversible Control of the Equilibrium Size of a Single Aerosol Droplet by Change in Relative Humidity

Shoji ISHIZAKA, Kunihiro YAMAUCHI, Noboru KITAMURA

Noncontact levitation of single micrometer-sized water droplets in air can be achieved by a laser trapping technique. The equilibrium size of a water droplet is quite sensitive to relative humidity in the surrounding gas phase. In order to investigate the physical and chemical properties of single water droplets in air as a function of the droplet size or solute concentration, laser trapping experiments were conducted under controlled humidity conditions. In this study, we developed a trapping chamber equipped with a relative humidity controller and demonstrated the reversible control of the equilibrium size of a single droplet levitated in air through a change in relative humidity. Furthermore, relative humidity was successfully evaluated by means of cavity enhanced Raman spectroscopy of a trapped water droplet.

DOI

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