Investigation of splashing phenomena during the impact of molten sub-micron gold droplets on solid surfaces

The dynamics of splashing accompanying the impact of molten 800 nm diameter gold droplets on silicon, gold coated silicon, gold coated glass and polished solid gold surfaces has been studied. A novel method based on laser induced forward transfer has been developed to generate single submicron molten gold droplets. Splashing morphology has been characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Focused Ion Beam (FIB) techniques. It is found that the splashing of submicron gold droplets upon impact is enhanced by high droplet impact energy achieved by reducing the droplet flight distance and that an air layer resulting in a bubble becomes trapped under the impacting droplets even when the size of the droplet is less than one micron. Our results show that, under these conditions, heat transfer between the submicron droplet and the solid substrate is more important than surface roughness and surface tension in the evolution of splashing. A theoretical model has been developed to simulate the splashing characteristics of submicron gold droplets during impact. Both the experimental data and the analytical model show that splashing is enhanced by high heat transfer rates to the surface.