Jumping Nanodroplets
A. Habenicht,1
M. Olapinski,2
F. Burmeister,3
P. Leiderer,1
J. Boneberg1
Flat gold nanostructures on inert substrates like glass or graphite were illuminated by single intensive laser pulses with fluences above the gold melting threshold. The liquid structures produced in this way are far from their equilibrium shape, and a dewetting process sets in. On a time scale of a few nanoseconds, the liquid contracted toward a sphere. During this contraction, the center of mass moved upward, which could lead to detachment of droplets from the surface due to inertia. The resulting velocities were on the order of 10 meters per second for droplets with radii in the range of 100 nanometers.
1 Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
2 Department of Physics and Center for Nanoscience, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 München, Germany.
3 Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials, Woehlerstrasse 11-13, 79108 Freiburg, Germany.
