Ripening of ordered breath figures

We have investigated the ripening of breath figures with variable initial o rder. A dramatic impact of the degree of order on the coalescence behavior is observed. As opposed to the two-droplet coalescence events common to the usual disordered droplet arrays, four-droplet coalescence cascades predomi nate in a perfectly hexagonal breath figure. Upon introduction of disorder, a gradual transition to a regime dominated by three-droplet cascades is ob served. The statistics of coalescence cascades allows for detailed conclusi ons on the microscopic droplet dynamics.