Recurrence quantification analysis of intermittent spontaneous to forced dripping transition in laser droplet generation

Abstract

In laser droplet generation a laser pulse, composed of primary and detachment part, is used to form and detach a pendant droplet from the end of a metal wire. We analyze the dynamics of laser droplet generation process in dependence on the detachment pulse power. Dynamically three different dripping regimes have been observed: spontaneous, forced and intermittent dripping regime. We characterize these behaviors by means of recurrence plots and their quantification and argue that dynamics is getting more irregular with increasing the detachment pulse power, resembling an intermittent chaos-to-chaos transition.