Laser-driven accelerated growth of dendritic patterns
  We report a scheme for very significantly accelerating growth of dendritic patterns in diverse liquids, making use of only a few hundred microwatts of laser power in the presence of an efficient absorber like carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The CNTs act as a heat source that drives dendritic growth; their anisotropy ensures a rich diversity of branched patterns. We rationalize the unprecedented speed of dendritic growth using a diffusion equation for the temperature field with an additional source term. Close to the heat source, the well-established microscopic solvability theory is seen to break down. Our method opens new vistas for experimental and theoretical studies of pattern formation in liquids. 
H. Basu, K. M. Kolwankar, A. K. Dharmadhikari, J. A. Dharmadhikari, K.   Bambardekar, S. Sharma, and D. Mathur
cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.soft