Our latest paper, titled 'Rubber-like elasticity in laser-driven free surface flow of a Newtonian fluid', is out now in PNAS

Have you ever imagined blowing bubbles in a vacuum environment with a laser pulse?

Our recent paper, published in PNAS, describes the method of generating/blowing glycerol bubbles under vacuum using picosecond infrared laser pulses (through laser-induced spallation) and imaging them with a nanosecond pulse illuminated bright-field optical microscope. Through the analysis of the bubble dynamics, we uncovered a transient rubber-like elasticity in the thin liquid glycerol film. In a previous study, we demonstrated the applicability of these thin liquid bubbles/films for liquid ultrafast electron diffraction experiments. The method can also be very useful in the field of rheology to reveal the mechanical properties of liquids.

We constructed the setup and obtained these experimental results over three years ago. Many thanks to all the co-authors, Meghanad Kayanattil, Dr. Sascha W. Epp, and Djordje Gitaric, for the careful analysis and for finally getting it published, as well as for the support from the MPI for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter.

There is the link of the publication. A concise news report on our recent PNAS paper can be found on the webpage of MPI for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter and Phys.org website.