OPTICAL PROBING OF THE TEMPERATURE TRANSIENTS DURING PULSED-LASER INDUCED BOILING OF LIQUIDS

The thermodynamics of the rapid boiling of a liquid on a solid surface heated by an excimer laser pulse is studied experimentally. The dynam ics of bubble nucleation, growth, and collapse is detected by probing the optical specular reflectance. The transient temperature field is m easured by monitoring the reflectance of a thin him with calibrated op tical properties. The metastability behavior of the liquid and the cri terion for the liquid-vapor phase transition in nanosecond time scale are obtained for the pressure from 1 atmosphere to 3.3 MPa. (C) 1996 A merican Institute of Physics.