Simulating laser-induced droplet deformation

We investigate the dynamics of a tin droplet shot by a nanosecond laser pulse. We use numerical simulations and particularly study how the curvature of the droplet changes over time and as a function of the laser beam and droplet sizes. We show that particular attention is required for the initial conditions of the simulations to be able to recover the experimental observations. To this end, we find the correct form of the initial pressure and velocity fields and compare the late-time shapes of the droplets with our experimental data. The process simulated in this work finds applications in the EUV nanolithography industry, in which a laser pulse deforms a droplet into a sheet, which is subsequently ionized by a second laser pulse, creating an EUV-emitting plasma.