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Graphical abstract, Highlights • Diffuse illumination enables fluid dynamics observation inside cavitation bubbles. • Dynamics of laser-induced bubbles near a 90° sharp solid-liquid boundary is studied. • Bubble-driven overflow of cliff-like solid edge forms a fixed-type secondary cavity. • Re-entrant injection of surrounding liquid into the bubble is detected at the edge. • Characteristics of re-entrant jet depend on liquid viscosity and surface tension., Laser ablation in liquids is growing in popularity for various applications including nanoparticle production, breakdown spectroscopy, and surface functionalization. When laser pulse ablates the solid target submerged in liquid, a cavitation bubble develops. In case of “finite” geometries of ablated solids, liquid dynamical phenomena can occur inside the bubble when the bubble overflows the surface edge. To observe this dynamics, we use diffuse illumination of a flashlamp in combination with a high-speed videography by exposure times down to 250 ns. The developed theoretical modelling and its comparison with the experimental observations clearly prove that this approach widens the observable area inside the bubble. We thereby use it to study the dynamics of laser-induced cavitation bubble during its expansion over a sharp-edge (“cliff-like” 90°) geometry submerged in water, ethanol, and polyethylene glycol 300. The samples are 17 mm wide stainless steel plates with thickness in the range of 0.025–2 mm. Bubbles are induced on the samples by 1064-nm laser pulses with pulse durations of 7–60 ns and pulse energies of 10–55 mJ. We observe formation of a fixed-type secondary cavity behind the edge where low-pressure area develops due to bubble-driven flow of the liquid. This occurs when the velocity of liquid overflow exceeds ~20 m s−1. A re-entrant liquid injection with up to ~40 m s−1 velocity may occur inside the bubble when the bubble overflows the edge of the sample. Formation and characteristics of the jet evidently depend on the relation between the breakdown-edge offset and the bubble energy, as well as the properties of the surrounding liquid. Higher viscosity of the liquid prevents the generation of the jet.

The interaction between liquid flow and solid boundary can result in cavitation formation when the local pressure drops below vaporization threshold. The cavitation dynamics does not depend only on basic geometry, but also on surface roughness, chemistry and wettability. From application point of view, controlling cavitation in fluid flows by surface functionalization is of great importance to avoid the unwanted effects of hydrodynamic cavitation (erosion, noise and vibrations). However, it could be also used for intensification of various physical and chemical processes. In this work, the surfaces of 10-mm stainless steel cylinders are laser textured in order to demonstrate how hydrodynamic cavitation behavior can be controlled by surface modification. The surface properties are modified by using a nanosecond (10–28 ns) fiber laser (wavelength of 1060 nm). In such a way, surfaces with different topographies and wettability were produced and tested in a cavitation tunnel at different cavitation numbers (1.0–2.6). Cavitation characteristics behind functionalized cylindrical surfaces were monitored simultaneously by high-speed visualization (20,000 fps) and high frequency pressure transducers. The results clearly show that cavitation characteristics differ significantly between different micro-structured surfaces. On some surfaces incipient cavitation is delayed and cavitation extent decreased in comparison with the reference – a highly polished cylinder. It is also shown that the increased surface wettability (i.e., hydrophilicity) delays the incipient cavitation.