Optical Isolation of Chemical Oscillators
Nate Tompkins1, Ning Li1, Irv Epstein2, Seth Fraden1
1Department of Physics, 2Department of Chemistry, Brandeis University
Supported by Brandeis MRSEC 0820492
In this work we use a photosensitive
form of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ)
reaction and a Programmable
Illumination Microscope (PIM) to
create optical boundaries conditions
within an emulsion. This allows us to
create geometries of cellular oscillators
with only nearest neighbor coupling.
By creating 1D rings we can
test the effects of having an
even or odd number of drops.
The different behavior from
identical conditions can be
used to help in the creation of
customized materials.