Conical Interfaces between Two Immiscible Fluids Induced by an Optical Laser Beam

A. Girot (1) , J. Petit (2) , R. Saiseau (1) , T. Guérin (1) , H. Chraibi (1) , U. Delabre (3) , Jean-Pierre Delville (1)

1 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine
2 Centre d'Etudes de Gramat
3 Cavendish Laboratory

We demonstrate the existence of conical interface deformations induced by a laser beam that are similar7to Taylor cones in the electrical regime. We show that the cone morphology can be manipulated by fluid8and laser parameters. A theory is proposed to quantitatively describe these dependences in good agreement9with experimental data obtained for different fluid systems with low interfacial tensions. Counterintuitively,10the cone angle is proved to be independent of the refractive index contrast at leading order. These results11open a new optofluidic route towards optical spraying technology—an analogue of electrospraying—and12more generally for the optical shaping of interfaces

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]; Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]; Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]; Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Milieux fluides et réactifs

A. Girot, J. Petit, R. Saiseau, T. Guérin, H. Chraibi, et al.. Conical Interfaces between Two Immiscible Fluids Induced by an Optical Laser Beam. Physical Review Letters, 2019, 122 (17), ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.174501⟩. ⟨hal-02915826⟩