Viscoelastic shear waves (VESW) propagation in soft matters such as gelatin under thermal steady state was studied. VESW in a slab of gelatin causes the transverse displacement of the surface in a harmonic wave. The harmonic oscillation frequency of the transverse displacement of gelatin surface was then measured in real time in order to measure the modulus of rigidity of gelatin in terms of the measured oscillation frequency. A polarized heterodyne interferometer (PHI) was setup in this experiment which enables to precisely measure the transverse displacement of surface in real time at 0.3 nm resolution. This results in the proposed VESW method able to characterize gelatin soft material in real time. From the experimental demonstration, the properties of VESW propagation in soft material at thermal steady state potentially can become a novel nano-scale non-intrusion strain-stress sensor able to characterize the modulus rigidity of soft material.

Date Published: 21 February 2013
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8597, Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine X, 85970Z (21 February 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2001356

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8597:
Plasmonics in Biology and Medicine X
Tuan Vo-Dinh; Joseph R. Lakowicz, Editor(s)