The collision of a liquid drop against a small target results in the formation of a thin liquid sheet that extends radially until it reaches a maximum diameter. The subsequent retraction is due to the air-liquid surface tension. We have used a timeand space-resolved technique to measure the thickness field of this class of liquid sheet, based on the grey-level measurement of the image of a dyed liquid sheet recorded using a high-speed camera. This method enables a precise measurement of the thickness in the range 10-450 µm, with a temporal resolution equal to that of the camera. We have measured the evolution with time since impact, t, and radial position, r, of the thickness, h(r, t), for various drop volumes and impact velocities. Two asymptotic regimes for the expansion of the sheet are evidenced. The scalings of the thickness with t and r measured in the two regimes are those that were predicted by Rozhkov et al. (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 460, 2004, pp. 2681-2704 for the short-time regime and Villermaux and Bossa (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 668, 2011, pp. 412-435) for the long-time regime, but never experimentally measured before. Interestingly, our experimental data also provide evidence for the existence of a maximum of the film thickness h max (r) at a radial position r h max (t) corresponding to the cross-over of these two asymptotic regimes. The maximum moves with a constant velocity of the order of the drop impact velocity, as expected theoretically. Thanks to our visualization technique, we also provide evidence of an azimuthal thickness modulation of the liquid sheets.

We study the destabilization mechanism of thin liquid sheets expanding in air and show that dilute oil-in-water emulsion-based sheets disintegrate through the nucleation and growth of holes that perforate the sheet. The velocity and thickness fields of the sheet outside the holes are not perturbed by holes and hole opening follows a Taylor-Culick law. We find that a pre-hole, which widens and thins out the sheet with time, systematically precedes the hole nucleation. The growth dynamics of the pre-hole follows the law theoretically predicted for a liquid spreading on another liquid of higher surface tension due to Marangoni stresses. Classical Marangoni spreading experiments quantitatively corroborate our findings.The destabilization of free liquid films is of great importance for aerosol dispersions, and is involved in many practical situations [1,2] [6], and dilute oil-in-water emulsions [7]. However, despite its relative ubiquity, the bursting of liquid sheets through perforation events have not yet been carefully investigated nor modeled. The occurrence of perforation events in a spray directly decreases the fraction of small drops issued from the spray [8] as illustrated in the case of dilute emulsions, which are prone to induce the bursting of liquid sheets [7]. Dilute emulsions are also recognized as anti-drift adjuvants [8][9][10][11] and therefore commonly used as carrier fluids for pesticides delivery. Controlling the perforation processes would therefore allow one to finely tune the size distribution of drops issued from sprays, a goal of uttermost importance in many industrial processes. In this optics, a physical description of the mechanisms at play in perforation processes is desired. The commonly invoked conditions for perforation include a dewetting of inclusions by the fluid and an inclusion diameter equal to, or larger than, the thickness of the liquid sheet, so that inclusions cause perforation by puncturing both interfaces of the sheet [3]. But, to the best of our knowledge, those conditions have never been confronted to robust experimental facts. To unambiguously clarify the physical mechanisms at play, rationale experiments on individual perforation events are therefore required.In this Letter, we investigate the perforation mechanisms of an emulsion-based free liquid sheet issued from a single-drop experiment; resulting from the impact of one drop of fluid onto a small target [12][13][14]. During the sheet expansion, holes nucleate and grow. We show that each perforation event is preceded by the formation of a pre-hole that thins out the sheet and widens with time. We demonstrate that the pre-hole growth is governed by a Marangoni effect. The entry of emulsion oil droplets at the air/water interface leads to a spreading of the oil due to a surface tension gradient stress. This stress is counterbalanced by a viscous stress that drags the subsurface fluid, whose flow causes a local film thinning which ultimately lead to the rupture of the film. We show that the growth kinetics of pre-holes ...