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Temporal evolution of thermoacoustic streaming around a spatially confined temperature gradient

Martens, Franziska LU ; Corato, Enrico LU orcid ; van Assche, David LU ; Jakobsson, Ola LU ; Qiu, Wei LU orcid and Augustsson, Per LU (2026) In Physical Review Applied 25.
Abstract
The ability to precisely control the localization of individual cells or other microscopic biological particles in aqueous suspension inside a microfluidic confinement is essential for the realization of future tools for single-cell studies in basic biology and medicine. We previously demonstrated that thermoacoustic streaming stemming from interactions of an acoustic field with a thermal gradient induced by focused light can produce fast, confined, and modular local flow fields. In this work, we study the buildup and decay of thermoacoustic streaming generated by a focused laser directed into an acoustic half-wavelength standing wave. For a pre-established sound field, we observe the timescale for buildup and decay of the thermoacoustic... (More)
The ability to precisely control the localization of individual cells or other microscopic biological particles in aqueous suspension inside a microfluidic confinement is essential for the realization of future tools for single-cell studies in basic biology and medicine. We previously demonstrated that thermoacoustic streaming stemming from interactions of an acoustic field with a thermal gradient induced by focused light can produce fast, confined, and modular local flow fields. In this work, we study the buildup and decay of thermoacoustic streaming generated by a focused laser directed into an acoustic half-wavelength standing wave. For a pre-established sound field, we observe the timescale for buildup and decay of the thermoacoustic streaming upon activating the laser, and vice versa. For the system investigated, we find that while the buildup of thermoacoustic streaming takes only 2 ms for sound field-controlled thermoacoustic onset, laser-irradiation-controlled onset is ten times slower. This is explained by the relatively slow thermal diffusion in the system compared to the fast buildup of the acoustic resonance. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the combination of fast timing control by the sound field and the subsound-wavelength spatial control offered by the confined temperature gradient makes it possible to move a single particle a distance of 100 μ⁢m at 350 μ⁢m/s while leaving the trajectory of another nearby particle, less than 25 μ⁢m away, unaffected. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physical Review Applied
volume
25
article number
054025
pages
16 pages
publisher
American Physical Society
ISSN
2331-7019
DOI
10.1103/jhkv-lqlz
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7c840d66-bb23-46a7-af47-0d58a14cdf1c
date added to LUP
2026-06-01 01:43:51
date last changed
2026-06-01 13:28:09
@article{7c840d66-bb23-46a7-af47-0d58a14cdf1c,
  abstract     = {{The ability to precisely control the localization of individual cells or other microscopic biological particles in aqueous suspension inside a microfluidic confinement is essential for the realization of future tools for single-cell studies in basic biology and medicine. We previously demonstrated that thermoacoustic streaming stemming from interactions of an acoustic field with a thermal gradient induced by focused light can produce fast, confined, and modular local flow fields. In this work, we study the buildup and decay of thermoacoustic streaming generated by a focused laser directed into an acoustic half-wavelength standing wave. For a pre-established sound field, we observe the timescale for buildup and decay of the thermoacoustic streaming upon activating the laser, and vice versa. For the system investigated, we find that while the buildup of thermoacoustic streaming takes only 2 ms for sound field-controlled thermoacoustic onset, laser-irradiation-controlled onset is ten times slower. This is explained by the relatively slow thermal diffusion in the system compared to the fast buildup of the acoustic resonance. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the combination of fast timing control by the sound field and the subsound-wavelength spatial control offered by the confined temperature gradient makes it possible to move a single particle a distance of 100 μ⁢m at 350 μ⁢m/s while leaving the trajectory of another nearby particle, less than 25 μ⁢m away, unaffected.}},
  author       = {{Martens, Franziska and Corato, Enrico and van Assche, David and Jakobsson, Ola and Qiu, Wei and Augustsson, Per}},
  issn         = {{2331-7019}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  publisher    = {{American Physical Society}},
  series       = {{Physical Review Applied}},
  title        = {{Temporal evolution of thermoacoustic streaming around a spatially confined temperature gradient}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/jhkv-lqlz}},
  doi          = {{10.1103/jhkv-lqlz}},
  volume       = {{25}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}