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Acoustic Tractor Beam

Christine E. M. Démoré, Patrick M. Dahl, Zhengyi Yang, Peter Glynne-Jones, Andreas Melzer, Sandy Cochran, Michael P. MacDonald, and Gabriel C. Spalding
Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 174302 – Published 30 April 2014
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Abstract

Negative radiation forces act opposite to the direction of propagation, or net momentum, of a beam but have previously been challenging to definitively demonstrate. We report an experimental acoustic tractor beam generated by an ultrasonic array operating on macroscopic targets (>1cm) to demonstrate the negative radiation forces and to map out regimes over which they dominate, which we compare to simulations. The result and the geometrically simple configuration show that the effect is due to nonconservative forces, produced by redirection of a momentum flux from the angled sides of a target and not by conservative forces from a potential energy gradient. Use of a simple acoustic setup provides an easily understood illustration of the negative radiation pressure concept for tractor beams and demonstrates continuous attraction towards the source, against a net momentum flux in the system.

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  • Received 18 August 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.174302

© 2014 American Physical Society

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A Macroscopic Tractor Beam with Acoustic Waves

Published 30 April 2014

Structured acoustic fields can pull macroscopic objects towards the source by means of nonconservative forces.

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Authors & Affiliations

Christine E. M. Démoré1, Patrick M. Dahl1,2, Zhengyi Yang1, Peter Glynne-Jones3, Andreas Melzer1, Sandy Cochran1, Michael P. MacDonald1,4,*, and Gabriel C. Spalding2,†

  • 1Institute for Medical Science and Technology, University of Dundee, 1 Wurzburg Loan, Dundee DD2 1FD, Scotland, United Kingdom
  • 2Department of Physics, Illinois Wesleyan University, 201 East Beecher Street, Bloomington, Illinois 61701, USA
  • 3Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
  • 4Division of Physics, University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4HN, Scotland, United Kingdom

  • *mikepmacdonald@gmail.com
  • gspaldin@iwu.edu

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Issue

Vol. 112, Iss. 17 — 2 May 2014

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