Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
In this paper we treat surface tension driven convection effects in pulsed laser formed melts. Mass transport is determined from an approximate solution of the Navier Stokes equation. It is shown that for small laser spot diameters the characteristic mixing times are on the order of 100's of ns. The dependence of the convection mechanism on material and laser parameters is discussed and extended to thin metal films on Si. Experimental results substantiating the theoretical considerations are presented.