Related papers: Refractive-index-matched hydrogel materials for mo…
Learning and reasoning about physical phenomena is still a challenge in robotics development, and computational sciences play a capital role in the search for accurate methods able to provide explanations for past events and rigorous…
Pixel size in cameras and other refractive imaging devices is typically limited by the free-space diffraction. However, a vast majority of semiconductor-based detectors are based on materials with substantially high refractive index. We…
Optical reflection microscopy is one of the main imaging tools to visualize graphene microstructures. Here is reported a novel method that employs refractive index optimization in an optical reflection microscope, which greatly improves the…
Hydrogels are widespread soft materials, which can serve a wide range of applications. The control over the viscoelastic properties of the gel is of paramount importance. Ongoing environmental issues have raised the consumer's concern…
Effective methods of fluid transport vary across scale. A commonly used dimensionless number for quantifying the effective scale of fluid transport is the Reynolds number, Re, which gives the ratio of inertial to viscous forces. What may…
We present an experimental micro-model of drying porous media, based on microfluidic cells made of arrays of pillars on a regular grid, and complement these experiments with a matching two-dimensional pore-network model of drying. Disorder,…
Reciprocal movement cannot be used for locomotion at low-Reynolds number in an infinite fluid or near a rigid surface. Here we show that this limitation is relaxed for a body performing reciprocal motions near a deformable interface. Using…
Being able to precisely characterize the mechanical properties of soft microparticles is essential for numerous situations from the understanding of the flow of biological fluids to the development of soft micro-robots. Here we present a…
The values of the nonlinear refractive index coefficient for various materials in the terahertz frequency range exceed the ones in both visible and NIR ranges by several orders of magnitude. We report the direct measurement of the nonlinear…
A particle-water discrete element based approach to describe water movement in partially saturated granular media is presented and tested. Water potential is governed by both capillary bridges, dominant at low saturations, and the pressure…
The structural characterization of microgels at interfaces is fundamental to understand both their 2D phase behavior and their role as stabilizers that enable emulsions to be broken on demand. However, this characterization is usually…
Incorporating nanomaterials into hydrogels allows for the creation of versatile materials with properties that can be precisely tailored by manipulating their nanoscale structures, leading to a wide range of bulk properties. Investigating…
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a low-refractive-index-contrast hollow-core Bragg fiber sensor for liquid analyte refractive index detection. The sensor operates using a resonant sensing principle- when the refractive index of a…
From flocks of birds to biomolecular assemblies, systems in which many individual components independently consume energy to perform mechanical work exhibit a wide array of striking behaviors. Methods to quantify the dynamics of these so…
Gellan gum has gained significant attention due to its versatility in multiple applications in the form of hydrogels and microgels. A thorough understanding of the rheological behaviour of these systems is crucial both for fundamental…
We investigate the dynamics of alginate gels, an important class of biopolymer-based viscoelastic materials, by combining mechanical tests and non-conventional, time-resolved light scattering methods. Two relaxation modes are observed upon…
The matter created in relativistic heavy ion collisions is fairly well described by ideal hydrodynamics, and somewhat better described by viscous hydrodynamics. To this point, most viscous calculations have been two-dimensional, based on an…
We report extensive enhancement in the refractive index of artificially designed metamaterials by exploiting the deep subwavelength coupling in a free-standing, thin-film metal-dielectric-metal checkboard structure. A record high refractive…
Sessile hydrogel drops on rigid surfaces exhibit wetting/contact morphology intermediate between liquid drops and glass spheres. Using density functional theory, we reveal the contact forces acting between a hydrogel and a rigid glass…
Immersion optics enable creation of systems with improved optical concentration and coupling by taking advantage of the fact that the luminance of light is proportional to the square of the refractive index in a lossless optical system.…