Microbubble generation has applications in several fields ranging from medical diagnostics and pharmacology to water purification and food industry. Microbubbles have demonstrated great potential and extensive use in therapeutic applications such as targeted drug delivery, gene therapy, ultrasound surgery, tumor ablation and the removal of waste nanoparticles from the bloodstream. Therefore, it is important to investigate the controlled generation and manipulation of stable microbubbles.
Femtosecond filamentation-induced bubble generation allows precise control and prediction of the size, location, and polydispersity of the generated bubbles. The reduced shock wave and micro-bubble effects of the femtosecond laser lead to a more localized surgical effect than from a laser with large pulse widths. Therefore, ultra-short laser pulses are desirable for minimally invasive and highly localized surgical procedures resulting in minimal collateral tissue damage.
Our group, in collaboration with Prof. Dag Hanstorp at the University of Gothenburg, investigates the microbubbles induced by temporally separated ultra-short pulses. We explore the influence of laser energy, number of pulses, and liquid medium on the bubble size, shape, population density, and dynamics of interacting bubbles.
Publications
Controlling bubble generation by femtosecond laser-induced filamentation
D. Chaitanya Kumar Rao, V. S. Mooss, Y. N. Mishra, and D. Hanstorp
Scientific Reports 12, 15742, 2022.