Multimaterial fiber as a physical simulator of a capillary instability

Area of Science:

• Fluid Dynamics
• Materials Science
• Photonics

Background:

• Capillary breakup of cores is crucial for fabricating fiber-integrated optoelectronics and photonics.
• A physical understanding is needed to precisely engineer multimaterial fiber architectures.
• Current methods often rely on trial-and-error, limiting design control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a predictable method for controlling the capillary breakup of multimaterial fibers.
• To enable the design of solid-state fiber-embedded multimaterial architectures.
• To establish multimaterial fibers as physical simulators for capillary instability.

Main Methods:

• Exposing multimaterial fibers to a spatiotemporal temperature profile.
• Modulating fiber viscosity using the temperature gradient.
• Analyzing the resulting breakup dynamics using Euler-Lagrange equations.

Main Results:

• The spatiotemporal temperature profile predictably controls chaotic capillary breakup.
• The profile acts as a notch filter, selecting a single dominant wavelength for breakup.
• This controlled breakup allows for the precise formation of desired fiber architectures.

Conclusions:

• Understanding and controlling capillary breakup via temperature modulation is key for fabricating functional fiber-embedded systems.
• This approach transitions fiber fabrication from exploratory search to a design-driven technology.
• Multimaterial fibers can serve as universal physical simulators for capillary instability phenomena.