Semi-analytical model of optothermal fluidics in a confinement

TL;DR

This paper presents a semi-analytical model for temperature and flow fields in confined fluids under optothermal effects, validated against simulations and applied to nanoparticle trapping, with open-source code for accessibility.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-analytical solution for optothermal fluidics in confined geometries, enabling easier analysis and application in nanoparticle trapping experiments.

Findings

Validated semi-analytical solution matches numerical simulations.

Applied model explains nanoparticle trapping via thermophoretic forces.

Open-source code facilitates broader research use.

Abstract

In this paper, we provide the semi-analytical solution of the temperature and flow fields of a fluid confined in a narrow space between two parallel plates. The temperature increase is triggered by photothermal effects of fluids and/or boundaries due to the absorption of a focused Gaussian beam irradiated perpendicular to the fluid film, and then the temperature variation induces the flow fields through a buoyancy force and/or thermo-osmotic slip. The semi-analytical solution to this optothermal fluidic system is validated by comparing with the results of numerical simulation, and is applied to typical optothermal fluidic problems. In particular, the optothermal trap of nanoparticles observed in our previous experiment [T. Tsuji, et al., Electrophoresis, 42, 2401 (2021)] is investigated in terms of thermophoretic force and flow drag that are obtained semi-analytically. The semi-analytical solution can be shared through open-source codes that are available to researchers without the background of fluid mechanics.