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Updated: Oct 6, 2025

High Throughput Analysis of Liquid Droplet Impacts
Published on: March 6, 2020
Splashing of Large Helium Nanodroplets upon Surface Collisions
Paul Martini1,2, Simon Albertini1,3, Felix Laimer1
1Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
None:
In the present work we observe that helium nanodroplets colliding with surfaces can exhibit splashing in a way that is analogous to classical liquids. We use transmission electron microscopy and mass spectrometry to demonstrate that neutral and ionic dopants embedded in the droplets are efficiently backscattered in such events. High abundances of weakly bound He-tagged ions of both polarities indicate a gentle extraction mechanism of these ions from the droplets upon collision with a solid surface. This backscattering process is observed for dopant particles with masses up to 400 kilodaltons, indicating an unexpected mechanism that effectively lowers deposition rates of nanoparticles formed in helium droplets.
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