Millimeter-Scale Dense Liquid Droplet Formation and Crystallization in Glycine Solution Induced by Photon Pressure

Abstract

A millimeter-scale dense liquid droplet of glycine is prepared by focusing a CW near-infrared laser beam at the glass/solution interface of a thin film of its supersaturated heavy water solution. The formation process is investigated by direct observation with CCD and by measuring temporal change of the surface height with a displacement meter. The droplet becomes much larger than a focal spot size, a few mm width and ∼150 μm height, and observable with the naked eye. Interestingly, the droplet remains for a few tens of seconds even after switching off the laser beam. Whereas the droplet is kept during laser irradiation, the crystallization is immediately attained by shifting the laser beam to the air/droplet surface. It is considered that the droplet is possibly the early stage of the multistep crystallization process and plays an important role in photon pressure-induced crystallization of glycine.