Nonintrusive optical visualization of surface nanobubbles.

Individual surface nanobubbles are visualized with nonintrusive optical interference-enhanced reflection microscopy, demonstrating that their formation is not a consequence of the hitherto used intrusive atomic force microscopy technique. We then use this new and fast technique to demonstrate that surface nanobubbles form in less than a few seconds after ethanol-water exchange, which is the standard procedure for their preparation, and examine how they react to temperature variations.