Metamaterial control of the surface acoustic wave streaming jet

Abstract

The phenomenon of surface acoustic wave (SAW) streaming, where a streaming jet is created, occurs when a SAW propagating on the surface of a solid interacts with water, and underpins the increasingly important area of SAW microfluidics. A key characteristic of the streaming jet is the Rayleigh angle, i.e. the angle at which the jet is formed relative to the surface normal of the solid, which is determined by the ratio of the velocity of the acoustic wave in the fluid and in the solid. Although the ability to dynamically tune this angle would offer a novel tool for microfluidic control, the SAW velocity is normally fixed by the characteristics of the solid and liquid material properties. In this paper we show, using finite element method modelling, that changing the SAW Rayleigh wave phase velocity by patterning a metamaterial array, consisting of square annular holes, onto the surface of a SAW device can change the acoustic streaming Rayleigh angle by approximately a factor of two, in good agreement with calculations based on the change in velocity.