The energy deposition in a liquid drop on a nanosecond time scale by impact of a laser pulse can induce various reactions, such as vaporization or plasma generation. The hydrodynamic response of the drop can be extremely violent: The drop gets strongly deformed and propelled forward at several m/s, and subsequently fragments or even explodes.
We plan to use our existing experimental setup to study the laser-matter interaction for a high-energy laser pulse. Ultra high-speed cameras with frame rates up to
10^5 FPS and illumination techniques with a 10 ns exposure time are available in our lab. They allow us to link the laser impact to hydrodynamic events on the nanosecond time scale.