Oscillations of a water droplet illuminated by a linearly polarized laser pulse

A wave optical calculation is made of the distortion of a micrometer-sized water droplet illuminated by a short laser pulse (duration, 0.4 mu s). Firs t we find electromagnetic surface forces, assuming that the surface is at r est; thereafter we find the distortion by using the linearized Navier-Stoke s equation. We illustrate the motion as a function of time, up to 22 mu s a fter passage of the pulse. This study generalizes the earlier one of Lai et al. [J. Opt. Sec. Am. B 6, 2430 (1989)] to the case of linear polarization and is in reasonable agreement with the experiment of Zhang and Chang [Opt . Lett. 13, 916 (1988)]. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3224(99 )01006-1] OCIS codes: 140.0140, 260.0260, 260.2110.