Abstract

In recent years surface-light-scattering spectroscopy has been transformed from a complex optical experiment requiring substantial effort to operate effectively to a simpler instrument for which an accurate theory of operation has been developed. The accuracy and precision are sufficiently enhanced that refinement of the theory of spectral band shapes is justified to include more subtle effects such as bending moduli and thin-film forces associated with the van der Waals and the Casimir effects. We show how to develop extensions of the theory of interfacial fluctuations through the mass and the momentum balances of interfacial transport. We also show that free-energy functionals can be used to express curvature effects crisply. The results are detailed formulas that can be used to fit experimental spectra.

© 2001 Optical Society of America

Advances in surface-light-scattering instrumentation and analysis: noninvasive measuring of surface tension, viscosity, and other interfacial parameters

William V. Meyer, Gerard H. Wegdam, Denis Fenistein, and J. Adin Mann
Appl. Opt. 40(24) 4113-4133 (2001)

Surface fluctuation scattering using grating heterodyne spectroscopy

R. V. Edwards, R. S. Sirohi, J. A. Mann, L. B. Shih, and L. Lading
Appl. Opt. 21(19) 3555-3568 (1982)

Capillary waves on an asymmetric liquid film of pentane on water

Denis Fenistein, Gerard H. Wegdam, William V. Meyer, and J. Adin Mann
Appl. Opt. 40(24) 4134-4139 (2001)

Fiber-optics surface-light-scattering spectrometer

Padetha Tin, J. Adin Mann, William V. Meyer, and Thomas W. Taylor
Appl. Opt. 36(30) 7601-7604 (1997)

Surface fluctuation spectroscopy: some further considerations

J. C. Earnshaw
Appl. Opt. 24(6) 887-891 (1985)