Remote focused encoding and decoding of electric fields through acoustoelectric heterodyning

Heterodyning of signals through physical multiplication is the building block of numerous modern technologies. Yet, it has been mostly limited to the interaction between electromagnetic fields. Here, we report that heterodyning occurs also between acoustic and electric fields in liquid electrolytes....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications physics 2023-04, Vol.6 (1), p.79-11, Article 79
Main Authors: Rintoul, Jean L., Neufeld, Esra, Butler, Chris, Cleveland, Robin O., Grossman, Nir
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/1005/1007
639/638/440/94
639/705/1041
639/766/25/3927
Acoustic propagation
Acoustics
Biomedical materials
Demodulation
Elastic waves
Electric fields
Electrolytes
Electromagnetic fields
Electromagnetism
Heterodyning
Ions
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Sound fields
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Heterodyning of signals through physical multiplication is the building block of numerous modern technologies. Yet, it has been mostly limited to the interaction between electromagnetic fields. Here, we report that heterodyning occurs also between acoustic and electric fields in liquid electrolytes. We predict acoustoelectric heterodyning via computational field modelling, which accounts for the vector nature of the electrolytic acoustoelectric interaction. We then experimentally validate the spatiotemporal characteristics of the field emerging from the acoustoelectric heterodyning effect. The electric field distribution generated by the applied fields can be controlled by the propagating acoustic field and the orientation of the applied electric field, enabling the focusing of the resulting electric field at remote locations. Finally, we demonstrate detection of multi-frequency ionic currents at a distant focal location via signal demodulation using pressure waves in electrolytic liquids. As such, acoustoelectric heterodyning could open possibilities in non-invasive biomedical and bioelectronics applications. Heterodyning allows tailored electromagnetic fields to be generated by mixing two incoming fields. The authors show acoustoelectric heterodyning by combining electric and acoustic fields in electrolytic solutions. The resulting field can be controlled at distant highly focal locations, enabling new non-invasive biomedical applications.
ISSN:2399-3650
2399-3650
DOI:10.1038/s42005-023-01198-w