• Corpus ID: 119291170

Laser-driven accelerated growth of dendritic patterns

@article{Basu2011LaserdrivenAG,
  title={Laser-driven accelerated growth of dendritic patterns},
  author={Himanish Basu and Kiran M. Kolwankar and Aditya K. Dharmadhikari and Jayashree A. Dharmadhikari and Kapil Bambardekar and S. Sharma and Deepak Mathur},
  journal={arXiv: Materials Science},
  year={2011}
}

• H. Basu, K. M. Kolwankar, +4 authors D. Mathur
• Published 1 December 2011
• Physics
• arXiv: Materials Science

We report a scheme for very significantly accelerating growth of dendritic patterns in diverse liquids, making use of only a few hundred microwatts of laser power in the presence of an efficient absorber like carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The CNTs act as a heat source that drives dendritic growth; their anisotropy ensures a rich diversity of branched patterns. We rationalize the unprecedented speed of dendritic growth using a diffusion equation for the temperature field with an additional source term. Close to the heat source, the well-established microscopic solvability theory is seen to break down. Our method opens new vistas for experimental and theoretical studies of pattern formation in liquids.