Influence of the trap potential waveform on surface oscillation and breakup of a levitated charged drop

Abstract

A charged droplet can be electrodynamically levitated in air using a quadrupole trap by typically applying a sinusoidal electric field. When a charged drop is levitated, it exhibits surface oscillations simultaneously building charge density due to continuous evaporation and subsequently undergoes breakup due to Rayleigh instability. In this work, we examined large-amplitude surface oscillations of a sub-Rayleigh charged drop and its subsequent breakup, levitated by various applied signals such as sine, square, and ramp waveforms at various imposed frequencies, using high-speed imaging (recorded at 100 000–130 000 frames per second). It is observed that the drop surface oscillates in a sphere–prolate–sphere–oblate mode and seldom in a sphere–prolate-sphere mode depending on the intricate interplay of various forces due to charge(q), the intensity of the applied field (Λ), and the shift of the droplet from the geometric center of the trap (zshift). The Fast Fourier Transformation analysis shows that the droplet oscillates with the forced frequency irrespective of the type of the applied waveform. While in the sinusoidal case, the nonlinearities are significant, in the square and ramp potentials, there is an admittance of all the harmonic frequencies of the applied potential. Interestingly, the breakup characteristics of a critically charged droplet are found to be unaffected by the type of the applied waveform. The experimental observations are validated with an analytical theory as well as with the Boundary Integral simulations in the potential flow limit, and the results are found to be in a reasonable agreement.