A technique is described that utilizes the highly collimated light from a He-Ne laser that produces an ‘optical lever’ effect at a liquid-gas meniscus to make a non-contact measurement of surface tension.
The measurement of surface tension by non-intrusive methods is of interest to some in the metrology field. The use of a very narrow beam of light interacting optically with a gas-liquid meniscus has made this type of measurement possible.
Such a technique will enable dynamic measurements of surface tension to be made under varying temperature gradients, and other conditions, without any physical disturbance of the test medium.
This new technique will furthermore enable the examination of menisci geometry and surface tension in semiconductor crystal growing procedures, perhaps using dye tuned lasers.