Probing of Microscale Phase-Change Phenomena Based on Michelson Interforometry

Abstract

Experimental schemes that enable characterization of phase-change phenomena in the microscale regime are essential for understanding the phase-change kinetics. Particularly, monitoring rapid vaporization on a submicron length scale is an important yet challenging task in a variety of laser-processing application, including steam laser cleaning and liquid-assisted material ablation. This paper introduces a novel technique based on Michelson interferometry for probing the liquid-vaporization process on a solid surface heated by a KrF excimer laser pulse(λ=248nm, FWHM=24ns) in water. The effective thickness of a microbubble layer has been measured with nanosecond time resolution. The maximum bubble size and growth rate are estimated to be of the order of 0.1㎛ and 1m/s, respectively. The results show that the acoustic enhancement in the laser induced vaporization process is caused by bubble expansion in the initial growth stage, not by bubble collapse. This work demonstrates that the interference method is effective for detecting bubble nucleation and microscale vaporization kinetics.