Interaction between jets during laser-induced forward transfer

Simultaneous two-beam laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) was carried out for various inter-beam separations, analyzing both the resulting printing outcomes and the corresponding liquid transfer dynamics. In a first experiment, droplets of an aqueous solution were printed onto a substrate at different inter-beam distances, which proved that a significant departure from the single-beam LIFT dynamics takes places at specific separations. In the second experiment, time-resolved imaging analysis revealed the existence of significant jet-jet interactions at those separations; such interactions proceed through a dynamics that results in remarkable jet deflection for which a possible onset mechanism is proposed.