SUPPRESSION OF SCATTERING RESONANCES IN INHOMOGENEOUS MICRODROPLETS

Resonance structure in elastic scattering was measured for evaporating micrometer-sized glycerol droplets suspended in an electrodynamic tra p. Seeding the droplets with polystyrene latex particles having a diam eter of 30 nm less-than-or-equal-to d less-than-or-equal-to 105 nm bro adens and attenuates the highest Q (with bare Q almost-equal-to 10(3) - 10(5)) resonances, where Q is defined as the ratio of the energy sto red to the energy lost from a cavity per cycle. Regardless of whether resonance conditions are satisfied, the presence of latex particles ca uses fluctuations in the scattering with an amplitude of up to almost- equal-to 30% of the total signal. Model calculations suggest that the fluctuations may be due at least partially to agglomerated latex parti cles passing through hot-spot regions within the droplet.