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Dynamics and critical damping of capillary waves in an ionic liquid
E Sloutskin1, P Huber, M Wolff
1Physics Department and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Abstract:
The dynamics of thermal capillary waves (CWs) on an ionic liquid's surface are studied at the transition from propagating to overdamped CWs by x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. The analysis considers both homodyne and heterodyne contributions, and yields excellent full line-shape experiment-theory agreement for the structure factor. The CWs' Brillouin scattering becomes extinct at a critical temperature Tc JK approximately 10 K above Tc LL , the propagating modes' hydrodynamic limit, in agreement with linear response theory. Surprisingly, the same power law applies at both Tc. The results rule out the presence of a suggested surface dipole layer.
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