Direct measurement of activation time and nucleation rate in capillary-condensed water nanomeniscus

Abstract

We demonstrate real-time observation of nucleation of the single water nanomeniscus formed via capillary condensation. We directly measure (i) activation time by time-resolved atomic force microscopy and (ii) nucleation rate by statistical analysis of its exponential distribution, which is the experimental evidence that the activation process is stochastic and follows the Poisson statistics. It implies that formation of the water nanomeniscus is triggered by nucleation, which requires activation for producing a nucleus. We also find the dependence of the nucleation rate on the tip-sample distance and temperature.