EurekAlert June 22, 2021
Precisely controlling nanoparticles is a crucial ability for many emerging technologies. Researchers at Duke University used sound waves to create electric fields that provide the push. The new acoustoelectronic tweezer approach works by placing a piezoelectric substrate beneath a small chamber filled with liquid. Four transducers are aligned on the chamber’s sides, which send sound waves into the piezoelectric substrate. These sound waves bounce around and interact with one another to create a stable pattern and create electrical fields which dynamically alternate between positive and negative charges polarizing the nanoparticles in liquid, which serves as a handle to manipulate them. The patterns are created with sound waves hence positions and properties can be quickly and easily modified to create a variety of options. Nano-manipulation holds great potential for a variety of applications in the fields of electronics, optics, condensed matter physics, metamaterials, and biomedicine…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
… Four transducers send sound waves into a substrate that creates electricity as it vibrates, producing patterns of electric-acoustic waves that control particles in the liquid-filled chamber above. Credit: Peiran Zhang, Duke University