Numerical simulation of the radiation force from transient acoustic fields: Application to laser-guided acoustic tweezers

TL;DR

This paper develops a finite-element simulation method for transient acoustic radiation forces, enabling the design and optimization of laser-guided acoustic tweezers with pulsed waves for microscale manipulation.

Contribution

It introduces the first numerical implementation of the recently derived theory for pulsed acoustic radiation force, facilitating the design of pulse-based acoustic tweezers.

Findings

Simulation of laser-guided acoustic tweezers demonstrated improved selectivity.

The model enables optimization of pulse parameters for better trapping efficiency.

Numerical results can accelerate the development of high-precision acoustic manipulation devices.

Abstract

Using pulsed acoustic waves could provide a superior selectivity for microscale acoustic tweezers. However, the theory for the radiation force of pulsed acoustic waves has only been recently derived and no numerical implementations are available. In this paper, we present a finite-element implementation of this model to simulate the transient acoustic radiation force on small spheres. We use the model to simulate laser-guided acoustic tweezers and optimize their performance. By enabling numerical simulations of the transient radiation force, this work may accelerate the rational design of pulse-based high-selectivity acoustic tweezers devices.