Transient Temperature During the Vaporization of Liquid on a Pulsed Laser-Heated Solid Surface

The thermodynamics of the rapid vaporization of a liquid on a solid surface heated by an excimer laser pulse is studied experimentally. The transient temperature field is measured by monitoring the photothermal reflectance of an embedded thin film in nanosecond time resolution. The transient reflectivity is calibrated by considering a temperature gradient across the sample based on the static measurements of the thin film optical properties at elevated temperatures. The dynamics of bubble nucleation, growth, and collapse is detected by probing the optical specular reflectance. The metastability behavior of the liquid and the criterion for the onset of liquid-vapor phase transition in nanosecond time scale are obtained quantitatively for the first time.