Brief Communications
Nature 421, 128 (9 January 2003) | doi:10.1038/421128a
Coulomb fission: Rayleigh jets from levitated microdroplets
Denis Duft, Tobias Achtzehn, Rene Müller, Bernd A. Huber2 and Thomas Leisner
Electrified droplets are generated in thunderstorm clouds, as well as in technological applications such as ink-jet printing and electrospray ionization, but they become unstable when charged beyond the Rayleigh limit1. Here we record the dynamics of the disintegration process by examining levitated droplets under high-speed microscopy. These images may help to explain one of the oldest unsolved problems in experimental and theoretical physics.
- Institut für Physik, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Postfach 100565, 98684 Ilmenau, Germany
- Permanent address: Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche Ions Lasers, rue Claude Bloch, 14070 Caen Cedex 5, France
Correspondence to: Thomas Leisner e-mail: Email: thomas.leisner@TU-Ilmenau.de