Publication detail

Electron Tractor Beam: Deterministic Manipulation of Liquid Droplets on Solid Surfaces

UKROPCOVÁ, I. DAO, R. ŠTUBIAN, M. KOLÍBAL, M. ŠIKOLA, T. WILLINGER, M. WANG, Z. ZLÁMAL, J. BÁBOR, P.

Original Title

Electron Tractor Beam: Deterministic Manipulation of Liquid Droplets on Solid Surfaces

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

The motion of liquid droplets is studied across many physics subfields and manipulation of nanoscale droplets on demand holds great promise in, e.g., nanotechnology. In this study, AuGe droplets on a germanium substrate are manipulated by an electron beam in a scanning electron microscope. The electron beam exposure creates a local temperature gradient in a substrate and induces a directional thermomigration of droplets nearby. To quantitatively analyse this phenomenon and to reveal the mechanism behind it, experimental observations under different conditions (beam current, sample temperature, scanning strategy) and simulations are combined. The obtained insights suggest that the droplet motion is limited by the dissolution of the substrate below the droplet. In addition, it is shown that the electron tractor beam is not only able to control the droplet motion but can also be used to split the droplets, thus opening new possibilities for droplet manipulation inside an SEM.

Keywords

atomic force microscopy; AuGe; droplet migration; in situ microscopy; micromanipulation; thermomigration

Authors

UKROPCOVÁ, I.; DAO, R.; ŠTUBIAN, M.; KOLÍBAL, M.; ŠIKOLA, T.; WILLINGER, M.; WANG, Z.; ZLÁMAL, J.; BÁBOR, P.

Released

17. 1. 2023

Publisher

Wiley

Location

HOBOKEN

ISBN

2196-7350

Periodical

Advanced Materials Interfaces

Year of study

10

Number

2

State

Federal Republic of Germany

Pages count

7

URL

https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202201963

Full text in the Digital Library

http://hdl.handle.net/11012/209238

BibTex

@article{BUT181630,
  author="Iveta {Ukropcová} and Radek {Dao} and Martin {Štubian} and Miroslav {Kolíbal} and Tomáš {Šikola} and Marc Georg {Willinger} and Zhu-Jun {Wang} and Jakub {Zlámal} and Petr {Bábor}",
  title="Electron Tractor Beam: Deterministic Manipulation of Liquid Droplets on Solid Surfaces",
  journal="Advanced Materials Interfaces",
  year="2023",
  volume="10",
  number="2",
  pages="7",
  doi="10.1002/admi.202201963",
  issn="2196-7350",
  url="https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202201963"
}