About

Luc Deike is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. His research focuses on the dynamics of air-sea interaction, including the modeling and experimental study of wind waves, bubble dynamics, spray generation, and turbulent multiphase flows. His group works on a variety of problems such as wave breaking, surfactant effects on surface waves, cloud microphysics, and the impact of turbulent flows on biogeochemical tracers. The research involves both numerical simulations and experimental investigations, addressing complex phenomena like bubble rupture in the presence of surfactants, aerosol production by bubble bursting, and the dynamics of salty thin films and fragmentation. Deike's group also collaborates on modeling offshore wind farms and studies related to ice particle nucleation and gas exchange at the air-sea interface. His work contributes to advancing the understanding of fluid dynamics at the interface between the ocean and atmosphere, with applications in environmental science and engineering.

Research topics

• Mechanics
• Physics
• Materials science
• Meteorology
• Atmospheric sciences

Selected publications

• Dataset for "Surfactant effect on collective bubble bursting and aerosol emission"

  DataSpace · 2026-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The influence of waves and bubbles on oxygen in the ocean interior

  Environmental Research Letters · 2026-04-17

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Bubble-mediated exchange during wave breaking is an essential pathway for oxygen transfer at the ocean–atmosphere interface. Conventional wind-dependent gas transfer velocity formulations generally ignore wave-bubble effects and use local wind speed alone to determine the air–sea gas exchange rate. Here, we quantify the influence of waves and bubbles using a generalised wind-wave-bubble gas transfer formulation that accounts for symmetric (diffusive flux through the unbroken ocean and large bubble surface) and asymmetric (pressurised large and small bubbles that dissolve completely) contributions. We contrast it with a widely used wind-dependent formulation using simulations from a global ocean circulation model over the historical period (1959–2020). Including waves and bubbles reduces the model–observation mismatch with quality-controlled biogeochemical Argo float oxygen concentrations in key mode and deep water mass formation regions by ∼70% to 90% and captures observed episodes of bubble-induced supersaturation. This addresses the systematic oxygen undersaturation bias simulated by the wind-dependent simulation. These surface changes propagate into the interior, raising oxygen concentrations by +2 to +10 µ mol kg −1 across most water mass layers. The wind-wave-bubble formulation also enhances flux variability across timescales, and amplifies the climatological seasonal amplitude of the global air–sea oxygen flux by ∼30% relative to the wind-dependent formulation. These results establish bubbles as a first-order, global-scale control on ocean oxygen, resulting in a closer match to observed oxygen saturation and enhancing interior oxygen ventilation.

  PublisherDOI

• Surfactant effect on collective bubble bursting and aerosol emission

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-04-22

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Bubbles entrained by breaking waves rise to the ocean surface where they cluster and burst, emitting sea spray aerosols into the atmosphere. Bubble bursting thereby links seawater biogeochemistry and aerosol chemistry, influencing the ability of emitted aerosols to serve as cloud condensation nuclei or ice nucleating particles. The mechanisms of film drop and jet drop production are modulated by organic material present in seawater, which may affect the size, number, and composition of resulting aerosols. We disentangle the effect of surfactant on collective bursting processes using laboratory experiments with detailed bubble and aerosol measurements down to small sizes, multiple bubble size configurations, and measurements of bubble lifetime. Submicron aerosol emission, linked to film drop production, increased with surfactant up to an optimal concentration, while production of supermicron aerosols emitted through jet drop production was shut down. Our work paves the way to integrate organic composition into sea spray emission functions.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Tracking water vapor homogeneous nucleation and droplet growth with spectroscopy and holography in a free expansion cloud chamber

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-05-12

  preprintOpen access

  We use a newly commissioned rapid expansion aerosol chamber (REACh) facility to study the homogeneous nucleation of water vapor to form liquid droplets. We perform high-speed measurements to track the partitioning of water into vapor and droplets throughout the expansion process, including tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) to access the vapor concentration and in-line holography to track the size and concentration of nucleating droplets. We retrieve the peak saturation ratio achieved in each expansion from the TDLAS measurements in combination with adjusted thermocouple temperature readout. We monitor the number of nucleated droplets and their subsequent growth as a function of saturation ratio, and observe the onset of homogeneous nucleation of water vapor occurring at a threshold saturation ratio near $S=5$, in agreement with prior literature and classical nucleation theory. The trends we observe in average diameter and droplet concentration suggest that warm air pockets near the chamber walls inhomogeneously mix with cold air at the center of the chamber following expansion. Active forced mixing with fans yields more spatially uniform temperature readings across the chamber, but also significantly broadens the droplet size distribution. Our results demonstrate the capability of TDLAS and holography techniques to track both water vapor and liquid water in the high saturation ratio environments necessary for the homogeneous nucleation of droplets. Our findings also reveal that droplet nucleation and growth dynamics are highly sensitive to turbulence.

  PublisherDOI

• Fast and slow surfactants in turbulent bubble breakup

  ArXiv.org · 2026-01-06

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  When a large air cavity breaks in a turbulent flow, it goes through very large deformations and cascading events of new interface formation, including elongated filaments and bubbles over a wide range of scales, with their rate of formation controlled by turbulence and capillary processes. We experimentally investigate the effects of surfactants and salt on the fragmentation, and observe an order of magnitude increase of the number of bubbles being produced in some cases. For bubbles larger than the Hinze scale $d_H$ (defined as the balance between surface tension and turbulence stresses), we observe that bubble size distributions remain unchanged for all solutions tested. For bubbles below $d_H$, however, we observe an increase of the number of bubbles produced and an associated steepening of the bubble size distribution upon the addition of surfactant or salt. This later effect is only visible for some of the surfactants tested when their adsorption timescale is fast enough compared to the rate at which new interfaces are being generated by turbulence.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Author response for "The influence of waves and bubbles on oxygen in the ocean interior"

  2026-04-16

  peer-reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Coalescence of viscoelastic sessile drops: the small and large contact angle limits

  Journal of Fluid Mechanics · 2026-01-02

  articleOpen access

  The coalescence and breakup of drops are classic examples of flows that feature singularities. The behaviour of viscoelastic fluids near these singularities is particularly intriguing – not only because of their added complexity, but also due to the unexpected responses they often exhibit. In particular, experiments have shown that the coalescence of viscoelastic sessile drops can differ significantly from that of their Newtonian counterparts, sometimes resulting in a sharply distorted interface. However, the mechanisms driving these differences in dynamics, as well as the potential influence of the contact angle are not fully known. Here, we study two different flow regimes effectively induced by varying the contact angle and demonstrate how that leads to markedly different coalescence behaviours. We show that the coalescence dynamics is effectively unaltered by viscoelasticity at small contact angles. The Deborah number, which is the ratio of the relaxation time of the polymer to the time scale of the background flow, scales as $\theta ^3$ for $\theta \ll 1$ , thus rationalising the near-Newtonian response. On the other hand, it has been shown previously that viscoelasticity dramatically alters the shape of the interface during coalescence at large contact angles. We study this large contact angle limit using two-dimensional numerical simulations of the equation of motion. We show that the departure of the coalescence dynamics from the Newtonian case is a function of the Deborah number and the elastocapillary number, which is the ratio between the shear modulus of the polymer solution and the characteristic stress in the fluid.

  PublisherDOI

• Coalescence of viscoelastic sessile drops: the small and large contact angle limits

  Journal of Fluid Mechanics · 2026-01-02

  articleOpen access

  The coalescence and breakup of drops are classic examples of flows that feature singularities. The behaviour of viscoelastic fluids near these singularities is particularly intriguing – not only because of their added complexity, but also due to the unexpected responses they often exhibit. In particular, experiments have shown that the coalescence of viscoelastic sessile drops can differ significantly from that of their Newtonian counterparts, sometimes resulting in a sharply distorted interface. However, the mechanisms driving these differences in dynamics, as well as the potential influence of the contact angle are not fully known. Here, we study two different flow regimes effectively induced by varying the contact angle and demonstrate how that leads to markedly different coalescence behaviours. We show that the coalescence dynamics is effectively unaltered by viscoelasticity at small contact angles. The Deborah number, which is the ratio of the relaxation time of the polymer to the time scale of the background flow, scales as $\theta ^3$ for $\theta \ll 1$ , thus rationalising the near-Newtonian response. On the other hand, it has been shown previously that viscoelasticity dramatically alters the shape of the interface during coalescence at large contact angles. We study this large contact angle limit using two-dimensional numerical simulations of the equation of motion. We show that the departure of the coalescence dynamics from the Newtonian case is a function of the Deborah number and the elastocapillary number, which is the ratio between the shear modulus of the polymer solution and the characteristic stress in the fluid.

  PublisherDOI

• Fast and slow surfactants in turbulent bubble breakup

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-01-06

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  When a large air cavity breaks in a turbulent flow, it goes through very large deformations and cascading events of new interface formation, including elongated filaments and bubbles over a wide range of scales, with their rate of formation controlled by turbulence and capillary processes. We experimentally investigate the effects of surfactants and salt on the fragmentation, and observe an order of magnitude increase of the number of bubbles being produced in some cases. For bubbles larger than the Hinze scale $d_H$ (defined as the balance between surface tension and turbulence stresses), we observe that bubble size distributions remain unchanged for all solutions tested. For bubbles below $d_H$, however, we observe an increase of the number of bubbles produced and an associated steepening of the bubble size distribution upon the addition of surfactant or salt. This later effect is only visible for some of the surfactants tested when their adsorption timescale is fast enough compared to the rate at which new interfaces are being generated by turbulence.

  PublisherDOI

• Tracking water vapor homogeneous nucleation and droplet growth with spectroscopy and holography in a free expansion cloud chamber

  ArXiv.org · 2026-05-12

  articleOpen access

  We use a newly commissioned rapid expansion aerosol chamber (REACh) facility to study the homogeneous nucleation of water vapor to form liquid droplets. We perform high-speed measurements to track the partitioning of water into vapor and droplets throughout the expansion process, including tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) to access the vapor concentration and in-line holography to track the size and concentration of nucleating droplets. We retrieve the peak saturation ratio achieved in each expansion from the TDLAS measurements in combination with adjusted thermocouple temperature readout. We monitor the number of nucleated droplets and their subsequent growth as a function of saturation ratio, and observe the onset of homogeneous nucleation of water vapor occurring at a threshold saturation ratio near $S=5$, in agreement with prior literature and classical nucleation theory. The trends we observe in average diameter and droplet concentration suggest that warm air pockets near the chamber walls inhomogeneously mix with cold air at the center of the chamber following expansion. Active forced mixing with fans yields more spatially uniform temperature readings across the chamber, but also significantly broadens the droplet size distribution. Our results demonstrate the capability of TDLAS and holography techniques to track both water vapor and liquid water in the high saturation ratio environments necessary for the homogeneous nucleation of droplets. Our findings also reveal that droplet nucleation and growth dynamics are highly sensitive to turbulence.

  PublisherOA PDF

Recent grants

• CAREER: Bubble fragmentation in turbulent flows

  NSF · $513k · 2019–2025

• Direct numerical simulations of droplet break-up in turbulence in inertial and viscous regimes

  NSF · $348k · 2023–2026

• A sea state dependent gas transfer formulation

  NSF · $414k · 2021–2024

• Spray generation by collective bubble bursting

  NSF · $724k · 2019–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Éric Falcon

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  66 shared

• Michaël Berhanu

  Université Paris Cité

  58 shared

• Stéphane Popinet

  Laboratoire de Dynamique des Fluides

  48 shared

• Stéphane Perrard

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  39 shared

• W. Kendall Melville

  Scripps Institution of Oceanography

  38 shared

• Aliénor Rivière

  Université Paris Cité

  25 shared

• Wouter Mostert

  University of Oxford

  24 shared

• St 'ephane Perrard

  21 shared

Labs

• Luc Deike LabPI

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Education

• PhD, Physics

  Université Sorbonne Paris Cité

  2013

• MSc, Physics

  Ecole Normale supérieure Département de Physique

  2010

Awards & honors

• Cozzarelli Prize finalist (2025)
• François Frenkiel Award for innovative paper on bubbles and…