Microparticles separation using acoustic topological insulators

Abstract

Acoustic topological insulators have exotic states on their topological interfaces, which provide an extraordinary approach to control the sound wave with a backscattering-immune property. Non-contact particle manipulations play an important role in life science, and acoustic tweezers are gaining increasing attention due to their better biological compatibility. In this Letter, we use an acoustic topological insulator to achieve non-contact particle manipulations such as microparticle trapping and separation. Based on the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) model, we can obtain the topological interfacial states. Then, we calculate the flow distribution fields and acoustic radiation force distribution fields, and the results show that we can separate two particles with the same size and density. Our study provides a guide to design topological insulator devices and achieves non-contact label-free microparticle manipulations, which exhibits enormous application potential in the biomedical field.