| abstract |
A method and apparatus for locally raising the temperature of a material to facilitate chemical reactions or processes related to growth or removal of the material, utilizes an electrode to apply, in the presence of a growth or removal medium, a controlled succession of thermal spikes or shockwaves (6) of varying energy, on the scale of a few nanometers to several hundred micrometers. The duration of the thermal spikes or shockwaves ranges from a few picoseconds to several hundred nanoseconds. The medium may be a cryogenic liquid. Other growth media, including liquids, solids, gases in critical or non-critical state, and mixtures of liquids/solids, solids/gases, and liquids/gases, may also be employed. The electrode may be an electrode emitter tip (1) with an anode (2) above workpiece (4) on platform (3) in the medium. Circuit (5) includes power source (7) with switch (8) controlling voltage pulse duration applied across tip and anode to produce shockwaves. |