Spatially Patterned Laser Irradiation Synergistically Enhances Crystal Nucleation
Abstract
Use of lasers has increasingly been recognized as a promising tool for the spatiotemporal control of crystallization, which is required in various scientific and industrial fields. This work reports synergistic enhancement of crystal nucleation by spatially patterned multi-spot laser irradiation, which drastically improves crystallization efficiency from melt and solutions. We found that pulsed laser irradiation at two different spots with a certain separation distance could significantly enhance ice crystal nucleation in supercooled water, where no nucleation could be induced by single-spot irradiation with the doubled pulse energy. Furthermore, we revealed that not only the inter-spot distance but also the spatial geometry of laser-induced stimuli is critical for the enhancement of ice crystal nucleation, suggesting that multi-spot irradiation enhances nucleation by the synergistic interplay of multiple cavitation bubbles and/or pressure waves that were generated from different laser spots. Such crystal nucleation enhancement by multi-spot laser irradiation was also confirmed in a solution system. These results clearly indicate that crystallization probability is governed not simply by the total laser energy delivered to the solution but by its spatial distribution, which provides a practical design guideline for efficient spatially patterned laser-induced nucleation and mechanistic insight into precise crystallization control.
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BibTeX
@misc{fujii2026spatially,
title = {{Spatially Patterned Laser Irradiation Synergistically Enhances Crystal Nucleation}},
author = {Norifumi Fujii and Hozumi Takahashi and Yoshiki Nakata and Hiroshi Y. Yoshikawa},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15008095/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008095/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spatially Patterned Laser Irradiation Synergistically Enhances Crystal Nucleation
AU - Norifumi Fujii
AU - Hozumi Takahashi
AU - Yoshiki Nakata
AU - Hiroshi Y. Yoshikawa
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15008095/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008095/v1
AB - Use of lasers has increasingly been recognized as a promising tool for the spatiotemporal control of crystallization, which is required in various scientific and industrial fields. This work reports synergistic enhancement of crystal nucleation by spatially patterned multi-spot laser irradiation, which drastically improves crystallization efficiency from melt and solutions. We found that pulsed laser irradiation at two different spots with a certain separation distance could significantly enhance ice crystal nucleation in supercooled water, where no nucleation could be induced by single-spot irradiation with the doubled pulse energy. Furthermore, we revealed that not only the inter-spot distance but also the spatial geometry of laser-induced stimuli is critical for the enhancement of ice crystal nucleation, suggesting that multi-spot irradiation enhances nucleation by the synergistic interplay of multiple cavitation bubbles and/or pressure waves that were generated from different laser spots. Such crystal nucleation enhancement by multi-spot laser irradiation was also confirmed in a solution system. These results clearly indicate that crystallization probability is governed not simply by the total laser energy delivered to the solution but by its spatial distribution, which provides a practical design guideline for efficient spatially patterned laser-induced nucleation and mechanistic insight into precise crystallization control.
ER -