Continuous high-speed water flow in pure water with pulsed laser

On September 27th, Professor Wang Zhiming from the Foundation and Frontier Research Institute of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China published a research paper entitled "Laser streaming: Turning a laser beam into a flow of liquid" in the Science publication "Science Advances". Wang Yanan, a postdoctoral fellow of the Institute of Basic and Frontier Research, is the co-first author, Professor Wang Zhiming and Professor Bao Jiming are the authors of the paper's joint communication. This is the first time that Professor Wang Zhiming's team published a research paper in the journal with the University of Electronic Science and Technology as the first unit. The paper was selected as the headline of the article on the official website of Science Advances, which is the first time that the University of Electronic Science and Technology has appeared on the headline of Science Advances magazine.

The preprint of the paper was originally published on the online paper platform arXiv.org. It has been reported by dozens of internationally renowned technology media such as MIT Technology Review, AZoNano and Laser Focus World in just one and a half months.

How to effectively use laser to drive macroscopic motion has always been a major challenge in the scientific research community. Professor Wang Zhiming's team and collaborators from universities such as the University of Houston, Harvard University, and Purdue University have proposed a new mechanism of photohydrology, and successfully used pulsed laser to achieve continuous high-speed water flow in pure water. The photohydrodynamic mechanism combines two basic physical processes, one is the photoacoustic effect, and the other is the acoustic wave driving fluid effect.

In the experiment, the research team first used a nanosecond laser to illuminate a glass cuvette containing a gold nanoparticle dispersion. After a period of irradiation, the laser will produce a microcavity shaped like a crater and with gold nanoparticles attached to the inner wall of the cuvette. Gold nanoparticles undergo rapid, periodic volume expansion and contraction under the illumination of a pulsed laser, producing ultrasonic waves (photoacoustic effects). Under the action of the gold nanoparticles and the cavity, the directional high-frequency ultrasonic waves drive the dispersion to generate high-speed flow through the acoustic wave driving effect. Here, the microcavity to which the gold nanoparticles are attached is the key to connecting the photoacoustic effect and the acoustic wave driving effect. Once the microcavity is formed, the dispersion is replaced with pure water or other solution, and the laser can also drive other liquids to flow. This interesting experiment found that organically combining nanophotonics, acoustics, microfluidics, and materials science has broad application prospects in optically controlled or triggered microstructured device systems.

Dr. Wang Yanan is a postdoctoral fellow of the team of Professor Wang Zhiming of the Foundation and Frontier Research Institute and Professor Bao Jiming of the University of Houston. He is mainly engaged in the research of nanophotonics and low-dimensional materials. Since joining the station, Dr. Wang Yanan has taken the Foundation and Frontier Research Institute of the University of Electronic Science and Technology as the first unit. The first author published the article "Distinguishing thermal lens effect from electronic third-order nonlinear self-phase" in the journal "Nanoscale". Modulation in liquid suspensions of 2D nanomaterials"; and participated in the publication of 11 SCI search papers, several of which were published in high-impact journals such as Advanced Materials, Chemistry of Materials, and ACS Photonics. "Science Advances" is a subsidiary of the Science publication and the first open access publication sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It aims to publish important influences in promoting scientific development. Innovative frontier work.