Article Abstracts | May 2007
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Laser-Induced Fluid Flow
Light scattering from a laser beam produces a jet stream in a water-in-oil mixture.
by David L. Shenkenberg, Associate News Editor
Lasers can do many things, including pushing particles and trapping them. Theoretical physicists from the University of Chicago predicted that lasers also can influence fluid flow. Together with experimentalists from the University of Bordeaux I in Talence, France, they have shown that a laser can produce a jet stream in a liquid solution.
The investigators designed the liquid solution to separate into two layers above 35 °C, just above room temperature, so that they could easily observe laser-induced fluid flow from deformations at the interface between the layers. The liquid solution essentially consisted of micelles — a suspension of water nanodroplets coated by a shell of soap (sodium diodecyl sulfate) in oil (toluene). Above 35 °C, the mixture separates into two layers of micelle suspensions with distinct concentrations...
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