Laser-induced rotation of a levitated sample in vacuum
- Creators
- Rhim, Won-Kyu
- Paradis, Paul-François
Abstract
A method of systematically controlling the rotational state of a sample levitated in a high vacuum using the photon pressure is described. A zirconium sphere was levitated in the high-temperature electrostatic levitator and it was rotated by irradiating it with a narrow beam of a high-power laser on a spot off the center of mass. While the laser beam heated the sample, it also rotated the sample with a torque that was proportional both to the laser power and the length of the torque arm. A simple theoretical basis was given and its validity was demonstrated using a solid zirconium sphere at ~2000 K. This method will be useful to systematically control the rotational state of a levitated sample for the containerless materials processing at high temperature.
Additional Information
©1999 American Institute of Physics. (Received 3 May 1999; accepted 15 September 1999) The authors would like to thank Dr. Eugene Trinh for lending them the Nd–YAG laser used in this experiment. The authors also would like to express their thanks to Professor W. Johnson of Caltech who pointed out that the torque generated by the laser beam reflected from a spherical sample negates the torque generated by the incident beam, giving a net zero torque. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.Files
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 1390
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:RHIrsi99
- Created
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2006-01-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field