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  • Open Access

Positive pressure matters in acoustic droplet vaporization

Samuele Fiorini*, Anunay Prasanna, Gazendra Shakya, Marco Cattaneo, and Outi Supponen†

  • Institute of Fluid Dynamics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

  • *Contact author: sfiorini@ethz.ch
  • †Contact author: outis@ethz.ch
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 023322 – Published 30 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/rj55-6bs1

Abstract

Acoustically vaporizable droplets are phase-change agents that can improve the effectiveness of ultrasound-based therapies. In this study, we demonstrate that the compression phase of an acoustic wave contributes to the generation of the negative pressure that initiates vaporization. This counterintuitive process is explained by separately evaluating the contribution of the compression and rarefaction phase of the incoming acoustic wave to the acoustic pressure field inside the droplet. Our analysis unifies the existing theories for acoustic droplet vaporization under a single framework and is supported by experiments and simulations. This different interpretation can be employed to identify governing parameters that allow one to vaporize droplets using predominantly compression waves, which are safer in medical use.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 023322– Published 30 June, 2025
  • Received 9 August 2024
  • Accepted 22 April 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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