  Plasmonic bubbles are of great relevance in numerous applications, including
catalytic reactions, micro/nanomanipulation of molecules or particles dispersed
in liquids, and cancer therapeutics. So far, studies have been focused on
bubble nucleation in pure liquids. Here we investigate plasmonic bubble
nucleation in ternary liquids consisting of ethanol, water, and trans-anethole
oil which can show the so-called ouzo-effect. We find that oil (trans-anethole)
droplet plumes are produced around the growing plasmonic bubbles. The
nucleation of the microdroplets and their organization in droplet plumes is due
to the symmetry breaking of the ethanol concentration field during the
selective evaporation of ethanol from the surrounding ternary liquids into the
growing plasmonic bubbles. Numerical simulations show the existence of a
critical Marangoni number Ma (the ratio between solutal advection rate and the
diffusion rate), above which the symmetry breaking of the ethanol concentration
field occurs, leading to the emission of the droplet plumes. The numerical
results agree with the experimental observation that more plumes are emitted
with increasing ethanol-water relative weight ratios and hence Ma. Our findings
on the droplet plume formation reveal the rich phenomena of plasmonic bubble
nucleation in multicomponent liquids and help to pave the way to achieve
enhanced mixing in multicomponent liquids in chemical, pharmaceutical, and
cosmetic industries.
