Acoustic rotation control

摘要

A system is described for acoustically controlled rotation of a levitated object (12), which avoids deformation of a levitated liquid object. Acoustic waves (50, 52 in FIG. 6) of the same wavelength are directed along perpendicular directions across the object, and with the relative phases of the acoustic waves repeatedly switched so that one wave alternately leads and lags the other by 90 DEG . The amount of torque for rotating the object, and the direction of rotation, are controlled by controlling the proportion of time one wave leads the other and selecting which wave leads the other most of the time.