The interface between two fluids is never flat at the nanoscale, and this is important for transport across interfaces. In absence of any external field, the surface roughness is due to thermally excited capillary waves possessing subnanometric amplitudes in the case of simple liquids. Here, we investigate the effect of ultrasound on the surface roughness of liquid-gas and liquid-liquid interfaces. MHz frequency ultrasound was applied normal to the interface at relatively low ultrasonic pressures (< 0.6 MPa), and the amplitudes of surface fluctuations have been measured by light reflectivity and ellipsometry. We found a dramatic enhancement of surface roughness, roughly linear with intensity, with vertical displacements of the interface as high as 50-100 nm. As a consequence, the effective contact area between two fluids can be increased by ultrasound. This result has a clear impact for enhancing interface based processes such as mass or heat transfer.

Microvessel blood flow imaging techniques are widely used in biomedical research and clinical diagnostics where many diseases have a vascular etiology or involvement. For testing purposes, zebrafish embryo provides an ideal animal model to achieve high-resolution imaging of superficial and deeply localized vessels. Moreover, the study of the formation of a closed circulatory system in vertebrates is a topic of recent interest in biophysics. However, most of the existing techniques are invasive due to the use of a contrast agent for imaging purposes. Recent developments in Digital Holography and Laser Doppler Holography techniques can be considered to alleviate this issue. Laser Doppler holography and transmission microscopy can be coupled to analyze blood flow in fish embryos by adapting a laser Doppler holographic setup to a standard bio-microscope: the two beams of the holographic interferometer (illumination of the object and reference), whose frequency offset is controlled, were addressed to the microscope by optical fibers. Multimodal acquisition and analysis of the data is made by acting on the frequency offset of the two beams, and on the location of the Fourier space filtered zone. In this work, we show that it is possible to select the signal of moving scatterers, and to image Red Blood Cells (RBCs) and blood vessels. Individual RBCs are imaged, and movies showing the RBC motion are obtained. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dynamics of anisotropic particles at a fluid interface governs trapping and particles subsequentassembly. Measuring and controlling this viscous dynamics open the way to new materials [1], andapplications [2]. Despite these domains of applications, measurements of the viscous coefficient ofanisotropic particles were mainly restricted to the bulk [3-4] or in quasi-2D confinement between twoglass plates [5]. Here we measure the complete set of viscous coefficients of single micrometricprolate ellipsoids near and trapped at an air-water interface. These coefficients are obtained from theBrownian motion of the particle coupling interferometry and particle tracking. For particles trapped atthe interface we measured anomalously large drags even larger than in the bulk water (ratio of surface/bulk rotational drags rR > 1 in Figure) [6]. Such an intriguing behaviour is discussed in terms ofadditional random forces due to thermally activated fluctuations of the interface and their coupling tothe particle drag through the fluctuation–dissipation theorem.Figure: Rotational viscous-drag ratio rR (surface/bulk) of polystyrene ellipsoidal particles at anair/water interface versus particle’s aspect ratio φ. Inset: mean square angular displacements (MSADs)versus the time lag τ.[1] M. Cavallaro, L. Botto, E. Lewandowski, M. Wang, and K. Stebe, PNAS 108, 20923 (2011).[2] Z. Huang, D. Legendre, and P. Guiraud, Chem. Eng. Sci. 66, 982 (2011).[3] D. Mukhija and M. Solomon, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 314, 98 (2007).[4] T. H. Besseling, M. Hermes, A. Kuijk et al., Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 27, 194109 (2015).[5] Y. Han, A. Alsayed, M. Nobili, J. Zhang, T. Lubensky, and A. Yodh, Science 314, 626 (2006).[6] G. Boniello, C. Blanc, D. Fedorenko, M. Medfai, N. Ben Mbarek, M. In, M. Gross, A. Stocco, M. Nobili,Nature Materials 14, 908 (2015).

The interface between a liquid and a fluid affects dramatically both the interactions and the motion of colloidal particles. In this talk, the impact of partial wetting dynamics on the motion of passive and active colloids will be presented. First, experimental results on the Brownian dynamics of micrometric spherical silica colloids andpolymeric ellipsoids trapped at a planar air-water interface will be described. Partial wetting defines a contact angle which sets the immersion depth of the colloid. Particle motion is confined in the interfacial plane. For spherical colloids, the contact angle is finely tuned in the range 30°-140° by surface treatments and measured in situ. Translational and rotational diffusion coefficients of colloids trapped at the water interface are obtained by particle tracking video-microscopy. Counter-intuitively, the friction felt by the colloid increases when the contact angle increases; i.e. when particles are less immersed in water and more in air, which has a negligible viscosity. To explain the slowing down of the translational motion for spheres and rotational diffusion for ellipsoids, an extra friction term originating from contact line fluctuations will be introduced.The second part of the talk deals with the motion of isolated active Janus colloids at the surface of water. Spherical catalytic Janus colloids have been prepared coating half surface of silica particles by a thin platinum layer. Immersion depth of the Janus colloids as well as their orientation with respect to the water surface reveal thecomplex wetting properties of Janus particles. The active motion of Janus colloids at the interface in the presence of various concentration of hydrogen peroxide has been studied. The types of trajectories, directional and circular ones observed revealed the effective force and torque induced by the catalytic decomposition of H2O2. At the water surface, active colloids perform more persistent directional motions as compared to the motions performed in the bulk. This has been interpreted as due to the loss of degrees of freedom resulting from the confinement at interfaceand also to the partial wetting conditions that possibly bring new contributions to the rotational friction at interface.

An original technique that combines digital holography, dual illumination of the sample and cleaning algorithm 3D reconstruction is proposed. It uses a standard transmission microscopy setup coupled with a digital holography detection. The technique is 4D, since it allows to determine, at each time step, the 3D locations (x, y, z) of many moving objects that scatter the dual illumination beam. The technique has been validated by imaging the microcirculation of blood in a fish larvae sample (the moving objects are thus red blood cells RBCs). Videos showing in 4D the moving RBCs superimposed with the perfused blood vessels are obtained.

We study the dynamics of individual polystyrene ellipsoids of different aspect ratios trapped at the air-water interface. Using particle tracking and in situ vertical scanning interferometry techniques we are able to measure translational drags and the protrusion in air of the ellipsoids. We report that translational drags on the ellipsoid are unexpectedly enhanced: despite the fact that a noticeable part of the ellipsoid is in air, drags are found larger than the bulk one in water.

Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography (UOT) is a technique that images optical contrast deep inside scattering media. Heterodyne holography is a promising tool able to detect the UOT tagged photons with high efficiency. In this work, we describe theoretically the detection of the tagged photon in heterodyne holography based UOT, show how to filter the untagged photon discuss, and discuss the effect of speckle decorrelation. We show that optimal detection sensitivity can obtain, if the frame exposure time is of the order of the decorrelation time.