Highly Spherical Nanoparticles Probe Gigahertz Viscoelastic Flows of Simple Liquids Without the No-Slip Condition

Simple liquids are conventionally described by Newtonian fluid mechanics, based on the assumption that relaxation processes in the flow occur much faster than the rate at which the fluid is driven. Nanoscale solids, however, have characteristic mechanical response times on the picosecond scale, which are comparable to mechanical relaxation times in simple liquids; as a result, viscoelastic effects in the liquid must be considered. These effects have been observed using time-resolved optical measurements of vibrating nanoparticles, but interpretation has often been complicated by finite velocity slip at the liquid–solid interface. Here, we use highly spherical gold nanoparticles to drive flows that are theoretically modeled without the use of the no-slip boundary condition at the particle surface. We obtain excellent agreement with this analytical theory that considers both the compression and shear relaxation properties of the liquid.