title: Low internal pressure in femtoliter water capillary bridges reduces evaporation rates.
abstract: Capillary bridges are usually formed by a small liquid volume in a confined space between two solid surfaces. They can have a lower internal pressure than the surrounding pressure for volumes of the order of femtoliters. Femtoliter capillary bridges with relatively rapid evaporation rates are difficult to explore experimentally. To understand in detail the evaporation of femtoliter capillary bridges, we present a feasible experimental method to directly visualize how water bridges evaporate between a microsphere and a flat substrate in still air using transmission X-ray microscopy. Precise measurements of evaporation rates for water bridges show that lower water pressure than surrounding pressure can significantly decrease evaporation through the suppression of vapor diffusion. This finding provides insight into the evaporation of ultrasmall capillary bridges.
authors.affiliation: Soft Matter Physics Laboratory, School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Soft Matter Physics Laboratory, School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea.
authors.forename: In Gyu
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Soft Matter Physics Laboratory, School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea.
authors.forename: Yeseul
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Soft Matter Physics Laboratory, School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea.
authors.forename: Su Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Beamline Division, Pohang Light Source, Hyoja, Pohang, Kyung-buk, 790-784, Korea.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Advanced Photonics Research Institute, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju, 500-712, Korea.
authors.forename: Joon Heon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, 305-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Bopil
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gim
authors.affiliation: Soft Matter Physics Laboratory, School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea.
authors.forename: Byung Mook
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Weon