RESUMEN
This work develops a technology for actuating droplets of any size without the requirement for high voltages or active control systems, which are typically found in competitive systems. The droplet actuation relies on two microelectrodes separated by a variable gap distance to generate an electrostatic gradient. The physical mechanism for the droplet motion is a combination of liquid dielectrophoresis and electrowetting. Investigating the system behavior as a function of the driving frequency identified the relative contribution of these two mechanisms and the optimum operating conditions. A fixed signal frequency of 0.5 kHz actuated various liquids and contaminants. Droplet actuation was demonstrated on several platforms, including linear, radial-symmetric, and bilateral-symmetric droplet motion. The electrode designs are scalable and can be fabricated on a flexible and optically transparent substrate: these key advancements will enable consumer applications that were previously inaccessible. A self-cleaning platform was also tested under laboratory conditions and on the road. This technology has significant potential in microfluidics and self-cleaning platforms, for example, in the automotive sector to clean body parts, camera covers, and sensors.
RESUMEN
In this paper, we use a finite difference time domain solver to simulate the near field optical properties of self-assembled microsphere arrays when exposed to an incoherent light source. Such arrays are typically used for microsphere lithography where each sphere acts as a ball lens, focusing ultraviolet light into an underlying photoresist layer. It is well known that arrays of circular features can be patterned using this technique. However, here, our simulations show that additional nanometer scale features can be introduced to the pattern by optimising the sphere dimensions and exposure conditions. These features are shown to arise from the contact points between the microspheres which produce paths for light leakage. For hexagonally close packed arrays, the six points of contact lead to star shapes in the photoresist. These star shapes have subfeature sizes comparable to the current achievable resolution of low-cost fabrication techniques.
RESUMEN
We report on the first observation of 'Spoof' Surface Plasmon Polariton (SPP) scattering from surface defects on metal-coated 3D printed, corrugated THz waveguiding surfaces. Surface defects, a result of the printing process, are shown to assist the direct coupling of the incident free-space radiation into a spoof SPP wave; removing the need to bridge the photon momentum gap using knife-edge or prism coupling. The free space characteristics, propagation losses and confinement of the spoof SPPs to the surface are measured, and the results are compared to finite-difference time domain simulations. Angular resolved THz spectroscopy measurements reveal the scattering patterns from surfaces and are compared with Mie theory, taking into account the shortened wavelength of the photons in their bound SPP state compared to their free space wavelength. These results confirm yet another similarity between the properties of THz spoof SPPs and their natural, non-spoof, counterparts at optical and infrared frequencies which also, unexpectedly, adds functionality to the structures.
RESUMEN
A vector network analyzer-based quasi-optical measurement system that is suitable for mapping electric field intensity and phase near to the surface of terahertz reflective optics is presented. The system uses a fixed five parabolic mirror and transmitter/receiver head arrangement that has the benefit of requiring only the sample to be swept during measurement. The system has been tested with a micromilled aluminum zone plate reflector used as an exemplar structure. The measured focal point of the zone plate reflector, at its designed frequency of 1 THz, is shown to correspond well to both finite difference time-domain simulations and analytical theory.
