Photovoltaic Transportation of Surfactant-Mediated Aqueous Microdroplets on LiNbO3 Platform

Abstract

Abstract: A method of surfactant-mediated photovoltaic transportation is proposed in this paper, the surfactant (span 80) layers self-assembled at the water-oil and oil-LN interfaces are employed to isolate photovoltaic charges in this method. The reduced electrostatic attenuation, remarkable hydrophobicity, and strong electrical breakdown suppression of the surfactant layers enable the stable and swift transportation of fL-scale aqueous microdroplets using μW-level laser in an oil medium. Three kinds of microdroplet responses to the laser illumination (unresponsive, repulsive and attractive cases) was found. With the increase of surfactant concentration, the driving mechanism can transit from the coulomb repulsion to the dielectrophoretic attraction that facilitates the photovoltaic transportation. Besides, the minimal laser power required for the attractive response was found correlated with the NaCl concentration inside the microdroplet.

Key words: optofluidic, optical manipulation, lithium niobate, photovoltaic effect, surfactant

CLC Number:

O439

SHI Lihong, GAO Zuoxuan, YAN Wenbo. Photovoltaic Transportation of Surfactant-Mediated Aqueous Microdroplets on LiNbO₃ Platform[J]. JOURNAL OF SYNTHETIC CRYSTALS, 2024, 53(3): 472-479.

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Photovoltaic Transportation of Surfactant-Mediated Aqueous Microdroplets on LiNbO₃ Platform

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