title: Dielectrophoretic behaviours of microdroplet sandwiched between LN substrates.
abstract: We demonstrate a sandwich configuration for microfluidic manipulation in LiNbO3 platform based on photovoltaic effect, and the behaviours of dielectric microdroplet under this sandwich configuration are investigated. It is found that the microdroplet can generate in the form of liquid bridge inside the LiNbO3-based sandwich structure under the governing dielectrophoretic force, and the dynamic process of microdroplet generation highly depends on the substrate combinations. Dynamic features found for different combinations are explained by the different electrostatic field distribution basing on the finite-element simulation results. Moreover, the electrostatic field required by the microdroplet generation is estimated through meniscus evolution and it is found in good agreement with the simulated electrostatic field inside the sandwich gap. Several kinds of microdroplet manipulations are attempted in this work. We suggest that the local dielectrophoretic force acting on the microdroplet depends on the distribution of the accumulated irradiation dosage. Without using any additional pumping or jetting actuator, the microdroplet can be step-moved, deformed or patterned by the inconsecutive dot-irradiation scheme, as well as elastically stretched out and back or smoothly guided in a designed pass by the consecutive line-irradiation scheme.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Engineering Laboratory of Photoelectronic Functional Crystals, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
authors.forename: Lipin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Engineering Laboratory of Photoelectronic Functional Crystals, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
authors.forename: Shaobei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Engineering Laboratory of Photoelectronic Functional Crystals, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
authors.forename: Bolin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Engineering Laboratory of Photoelectronic Functional Crystals, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
authors.forename: Wenbo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Engineering Laboratory of Photoelectronic Functional Crystals, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
authors.forename: Donghui
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Urban Construction Institute, Tianjin 300384, China.
authors.forename: Lihong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Engineering Laboratory of Photoelectronic Functional Crystals, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
authors.forename: Hongjian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Engineering Laboratory of Photoelectronic Functional Crystals, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
authors.forename: Dechao
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ban
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei Engineering Laboratory of Photoelectronic Functional Crystals, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
authors.forename: Shihao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun