Hydrophobic (or superhydrophobic) surfaces repel water (or oil), and we can easily imagine the practical use of such a phenomenon. "Liquid repulsion" by the surface is designed so that the liquid does not wet the surface, i.e. the liquid droplet does not have enough space to adhere. Such a surface is thus structured. In this case, it is created using a picosecond laser beam on the surface of 304L steel (food grade stainless steel). Surface imaging - "taking a picture" - allows you to describe the structure of the surface and measure the distances of the structures created by the laser depending on the parameters of the laser beam. We can then easily compare the ability of the created structures to be hydrophobic with the laser setup (production speed and energy consumption). Since we are observing a surface, we use secondary electrons that carry information about the surface structure, preferably with low acceleration energies to reduce the interaction volume.
