Hyperbolic kaleidoscopes and Chaos in foams and Hele-Shaw cell

Liquid foams have fascinating optical properties, which are caused by the large number of light refractions and reflections by liquid films and Plateau borders. Due to refraction and reflection at the interfaces, the direction of the rays leaving a Plateau border can vary greatly for the same incide...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2011-03, Vol.285 (1), p.012006-12
Main Authors: Tufaile, A P B, Tufaile, A, Liger-Belair, G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Borders
Chaos theory
Disks
Foams
Gaskets
Holes
Light reflection
Liquid bridges
Optical properties
Physics
Reflection
Scattering
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:Liquid foams have fascinating optical properties, which are caused by the large number of light refractions and reflections by liquid films and Plateau borders. Due to refraction and reflection at the interfaces, the direction of the rays leaving a Plateau border can vary greatly for the same incident angle and a small positional offset. A close look in some configurations of the Plateau borders or liquid bridges reveals the existence of some triangular patterns surrounded by a complex structure, and these patterns bear a resemblance to those observed in some systems involving chaotic scattering and multiple light reflections between spheres. Provided the optical properties of the sphere surfaces are chosen appropriately, fractals are natural consequences of multiple scattering of light rays in these cavities. The cavity acts as a hyperbolic kaleidoscope multiplying the scattering of light rays generating patterns related to Poincaré disks and Sierpinski gaskets in comparison to linear kaleidoscopes. We present some experimental results and simulations of these patterns explained by the light of the chaotic scattering.
ISSN:1742-6596
1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/285/1/012006