Laser-induced nucleation of carbon dioxide bubbles

A detailed experimental study of laser-induced nucleation (LIN) of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas bubbles is presented. Water and aqueous sucrose solutions supersaturated with CO2 were exposed to single nanosecond pulses (5 ns, 532 nm, 2.4-14.5 MW cm(-2)) and femtosecond pulses (110 fs, 800 nm, 0.028-11 GW cm(-2)) of laser light. No bubbles were observed with the femtosecond pulses, even at high peak power densities (11 GW cm(-2)). For the nanosecond pulses, the number of bubbles produced per pulse showed a quadratic dependence on laser power, with a distinct power threshold below which no bubbles were observed. The number of bubbles observed increases linearly with sucrose concentration. It was found that filtering of solutions reduces the number of bubbles significantly. Although the femtosecond pulses have higher peak power densities than the nanosecond pulses, they have lower energy densities per pulse. A simple model for LIN of CO2 is presented, based on heating of nanoparticles to produce vapor bubbles that must expand to reach a critical bubble radius to continue growth. The results suggest that non-photochemical laser-induced nucleation of crystals could also be caused by heating of nanoparticles.