Generation of Supercontinuum in Filamentation Regime in a Water Droplet Containing Silver Nanoparticles at Low Temperature.

Generation of supercontinuum (SC) was studied experimentally both in water droplets containing silver nanoparticles (NP) in the temperature range from 2 to 22°C and in droplet ice floes frozen to –15°C. It is established that intensity of SC emission exponentially decays along the droplet diameter following excitation by a train of femtosecond laser pulses and linearly increases with increase in NP concentration. Spectrum of SC emission generated in a water droplet containing NPs is investigated in the presence of localized plasmons producing fluorescence in the vicinity of 430 nm. Propagation of a thermal wave along the diameter (d = 1.0 mm) of a small frozen droplet at a speed of 190 mm/s accompanied by exponentially decaying SC emission is discovered. Mathematical model of heat-transfer processes in an ice floe upon thermal-wave formation is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]