Milking liquid nano-droplets by an IR laser: a new modality for the visualization of electric field lines

Year: 2013

Authors: Vespini V., Coppola S., Grilli S., Paturzo M., Ferraro P.

Autors Affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (CNR-INO), Via Campi Flegrei 34–80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy

Abstract: Liquid handling at micron- and nano-scale is of paramount importance in many fields of application such as biotechnology and biochemistry. In fact, the microfluidics technologies play an important role in lab-on-a-chip devices and, in particular, the dispensing of liquid droplets is a required functionality. Different approaches have been developed for manipulating, dispensing and controlling nano-droplets under a wide variety of configurations. Here we demonstrate that nano-droplets can be drawn from liquid drop or film reservoirs through a sort of milking effect achieved by the absorption of IR laser radiation into a pyroelectric crystal. The generation of the pyroelectric field induced by the IR laser is calculated numerically and a specific experiment has been designed to visualize the electric field stream lines that are responsible for the liquid milking effect. The experiments performed are expected to open a new route for the visualization, measure and characterization procedures in the case of electrohydrodynamic applications.

Journal/Review: MEASUREMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Volume: 24 (4)      Pages from: 45203-1  to: 45203-6

KeyWords: IR laser; electrohydrodynamic (EHD)
DOI: 10.1088/0957-0233/24/4/045203

ImpactFactor: 1.352
Citations: 10
data from “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) are update at: 2024-12-08
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