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Updated: Feb 2, 2026

Fabrication and Testing of Microfluidic Optomechanical Oscillators
Published on: May 29, 2014
Information transmission by Marangoni-driven relaxation oscillations at droplets
Marcel Mokbel1, Karin Schwarzenberger, Sebastian Aland
1Faculty of Informatics/Mathematics, HTW Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
Abstract:
Marangoni-driven relaxation oscillations can be observed in many systems where concentration gradients of surface-active substances exist. In the present paper, we describe the experimentally observed coupling between relaxation oscillations at neighboring droplets in a concentration gradient. By a numerical parameter study, we evaluate the oscillation characteristics depending on relevant material parameters and the pairwise droplet distance. Based on these findings, we demonstrate that hydrodynamic interaction in multidroplet configurations can lead to a synchronization of the oscillations over the whole ensemble. This effect has the potential to be used as a novel approach for information transmission in microfluidic applications.
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