Bullseye focusing of cylindrical waves at a liquid-solid interface

Abstract

Two converging and superimposing shock and Rayleigh waves are generated on a glass substrate by focusing laser pulses on two concentric rings in a bullseye configuration (67\mm~and 96\mm~radii). We study experimentally the threshold for substrate damage as a function of the number of repetitions and the delay (0-20\,ns). The bullseye focusing experiments are compared to a single focusing ring. Additionally, fluid-structure interaction simulations using a Volume-of-Fluid framework are utilized to estimate the stresses. The lowest number of repetitions to attain surface damage is found for constructive superposition of the Rayleigh waves, i.e., here for a delay of $10\,$ns. The observed damage is consistent with the simulations where the largest positive stresses ($\sim 5.6\,$GPa) are achieved for bullseye focusing with \dt = 10\,ns, followed by \dt= 20\,ns which corresponds to simultaneous shock wave focusing. In all these cases, the positive stresses are followed (a few nanoseconds later) by negative stresses that can reach $\sim-6.4\,$GPa.