Oscillatory instabilities produced by heat from a temperature-controlled hot wire below an interface

New experimental results are reported for the motion of a liquid surface caused by the heat released from a hot wire below the surface. Starting from a base state with steady convection and steady deformation of the free surface caused by variations in surface tension and heat transport to the surface, the system loses its stability through a supercritical Hopf bifurcation occurring on a curve f(ΔT * d)=0 in which d is the distance between hot wire and surface and ΔT * a critical temperature difference. These experiments are a model for more complex laser heating experiments in which chaotic motions may occur