Deformation of acoustically transparent fluid interfaces by the acoustic radiation pressure

Bruno Issenmann (1) , Alice Nicolas (2) , Régis Wunenburger (1) , Sébastien Manneville (3) , Jean-Pierre Delville (1)

1 CPMOH - Centre de physique moléculaire optique et hertzienne
2 LTM - Laboratoire des technologies de la microélectronique
3 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon

We experimentally study the deformations of liquid-liquid interfaces induced by a high-intensity focused ultrasonic beam. We quantitatively verify that small-amplitude deformations of a transparent chloroform-water interface are well described by the theory of Langevin acoustic radiation pressure, in both static and dynamic regimes. The large-amplitude deformations depend on the direction of propagation of the beam and are qualitatively similar to those induced by electromagnetic radiation pressure.

Keywords: Nonlinear acoustics; Capillary waves; Interfacial instabilities

Domains: Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Soft Condensed Matter [cond-mat.soft]

Bruno Issenmann, Alice Nicolas, Régis Wunenburger, Sébastien Manneville, Jean-Pierre Delville. Deformation of acoustically transparent fluid interfaces by the acoustic radiation pressure. EPL - Europhysics Letters, 2008, 83 (3), pp.34002. ⟨10.1209/0295-5075/83/34002⟩. ⟨ensl-00526120⟩