Novel technique for dynamic surface tension and viscosity measurements at liquid-gas interfaces.

A novel means of generating and detecting surface waves at liquid-gas interfaces has been successfully developed. Electrocapillarity is used to generate the waves which are detected via specular reflection of a laser beam from the fluid surface to a position sensitive photodiode. Such a scheme is compact, sensitive, and does not mechanically touch the fluid surface. A preliminary study of highly damped waves on the magnetically oriented liquid crystal MBBA is reported.