  The flow profile in a capillary gap and the pumping efficiency of an acoustic
micropump employing Surface Acoustic Waves is investigated both experimentally
and theoretically. Such ultrasonic surface waves on a piezoelectric substrate
strongly couple to a thin liquid layer and generate an internal streaming
within the fluid. Such acoustic streaming can be used for controlled agitation
during, e.g., microarray hybridization. We use fluorescence correlation
spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy as complementary tools to investigate
the resulting flow profile. The velocity was found to depend on the applied
power somewhat weaker than linearly and to decrease fast with the distance from
the ultrasound generator on the chip.
