Acoustically bound microfluidic bubble crystals

David Rabaud (1) , Pierre Thibault (1) , Mylène Mathieu (1) , Philippe Marmottant (2)

1 LIPhy - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique [Saint Martin d’Hères]
2 DYCOM

Bubbles confined in microchannels self-organize without directly contacting one another when excited by an external acoustic field. The bubbles tend to form periodic ''crystal''-like lattices with a finite interbubble distance. This equilibrium distance can be adjusted by simply tuning the acoustic frequency. This new type of crystal is purely mediated by acoustic surface waves emitted by the pulsating bubbles. Because these waves are reflected at the channel boundaries, the bubbles interact with their own images across the boundary.

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

David Rabaud, Pierre Thibault, Mylène Mathieu, Philippe Marmottant. Acoustically bound microfluidic bubble crystals. Physical Review Letters, 2011, 106, pp.134501. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.134501⟩. ⟨hal-00582406⟩