Figure 1.
Organization of the experimental components.
(a) Schematic of the device. (b) Photograph of the experimental set-up.
Figure 2.
Schematic of the process of particle acceleration on laser ablation of a thin Al foil.
[1− Lens. 2− Laser beam. 3− Glass overlay. 4− Foil. 5− Particles. 6− Target. 7− Shock wave. 8− Confined ablation. 9− Expansion wave. 10− Foil rupture. 11− Foil vapor/plasma jet].
Figure 3.
Photographs of microparticle acceleration on laser ablation of the foil/launch pad.
(a) Sequent pictures of particle acceleration during an experiment. Particles are accelerating into atmospheric air (at 1 bar pressure). (b) Annotated frame elucidating the photographs in part (a).
Figure 4.
Velocity of the microparticles with respect to distance from the launch pad, deduced from the visualized pictures.
Scatter bars indicate standard deviation.
Figure 5.
Delivery of microparticles into a soft in vitro target.
(a) Penetration of 1-µm size tungsten particles into 3% gelatin; target standoff distance: 3 mm. 500 µg of tungsten particles were delivered. (b) The top-view indicating the territory of particle bombardment.
Figure 6.
Onion scale cells showing GUS (gene) expression.
(a) A macrograph indicating the area of particle bombardment and the extent of gene expression. (b) A micrograph highlighting the gene expression spots.