  Understanding the dynamics of the micro-sized surface bubbles produced by
plasmonic heating can benefit a wide range of applications like microfluidics,
catalysis, micro-patterning and photo-thermal energy conversion. Usually,
surface plasmonic bubbles are generated on plasmonic nano-structures
pre-deposited on the surface subject to laser heating. In our studies, we have
investigated the growth dynamics and movement mechanism of surface microbubbles
generated in plasmonic nanoparticle (NP) suspension. In the first section, we
observe much faster bubble growth rates compared to those in pure water with
surface plasmonic structures. Our analyses show that the volumetric heating
effect around the surface bubble due to the existence of NPs in the suspension
is the key to explain this difference. In the second section, we demonstrate
that surface bubbles on a solid surface are directed by a laser to move at high
speeds (> 1.8 mm/s), and we elucidate the mechanism to be the de-pinning of the
three-phase contact line (TPCL) by rapid plasmonic heating of NPs deposited
in-situ during bubble movement.
