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Orbital angular momentum is a fundamental degree of freedom of light that manifests itself even at the single photon level. The coherent generation and beaming of structured light usually requires bulky and slow components. Using wave…
How can one design complex systems capable of learning for a given functionality? In the context of ultrafast laser-surface interaction, we unravel the nature of learning schemes tied to the emergence of complexity in dissipative…
Self-propelled particles can exhibit surprising non-equilibrium behaviors, and how they interact with obstacles or boundaries remains an important open problem. Here we show that chemically propelled micro-rods can be captured, with little…
We describe here the latest results of calculations with FlexPDE code of wake-fields induced by the bunch in micro-structures. These structures, illuminated by swept laser bust, serve for acceleration of charged particles. The basis of the…
Micro-robots for, e.g., biomedical applications, need to be equipped with motility strategies that enable them to navigate through complex environments. Inspired by biological microorganisms we recreate motility patterns such as…
A new mechanism for micro-swimmer motion in an aquatic environment, which implies light-induced polarization perturbations as a motivation for its motion, is proposed. The mechanism assumes that natural light leads to an enhancement of the…
Microscopic robots could perform tasks with high spatial precision, such as acting in biological tissues on the scale of individual cells, provided they can reach precise locations. This paper evaluates the feasibility of in vivo locomotion…
Exploring bodies of water on their surface allows robots to efficiently communicate and harvest energy from the sun. On the water surface, however, robots often face highly unstructured environments, cluttered with plant matter, animals,…
Delivering light to an object is one of the key steps in any imaging exercise. Tools such as LEDs and lasers are available to achieve this. These components are integrated into systems such as microscopy, medical imaging, remote sensing,…
Using light to manipulate small particles is a powerful tool with numerous practical applications across biophysics and nanotechnology. This experimental technique has achieved significant performance gains by employing shaped wavefronts,…
Techniques to mold the flow of light on subwavelength scales enable fundamentally new optical systems and device applications. The realization of programmable, active optical systems with fast, tunable components is among the outstanding…
Micron-sized self-propelled (active) particles can be considered as model systems for characterizing more complex biological organisms like swimming bacteria or motile cells. We produce asymmetric microswimmers by soft lithography and study…
Smarticles, or smart active particles, are small robots equipped with only basic movement and sensing abilities that are incapable of rotating or displacing individually. We study the ensemble behavior of smarticles, i.e., the behavior a…
Collections of simple, self-propelled colloidal particles exhibit complex, emergent dynamical behavior, with promising applications in microrobotics. When confined within a deformable vesicle, self-propelled rods cluster and align,…
The motion of an artificial micro-scale swimmer that uses a chemical reaction catalyzed on its own surface to achieve autonomous propulsion is fully characterized experimentally. It is shown that at short times, it has a substantial…
Lablets are autonomous microscopic particles with programmable CMOS electronics that can control electrokinetic phenomena and electrochemical reactions in solution via actuator and sensor microelectrodes. In this paper, we describe the…
We observe growth of shape-controlled potassium nanoparticles inside a random network of glass nanopores, exposed to low-power laser radiation. Visible laser light plays a dual role: it increases the desorption probability of potassium…
Wavefront shaping has revolutionized the concepts of optical imaging and focusing. Contrary to what was believed, strong scattering in the optical paths can be exploited in favor of light focusing through turbid media and ultimately improve…
Using optical dipole forces we have realized controlled transport of a single or any desired small number of neutral atoms over a distance of a centimeter with sub-micrometer precision. A standing wave dipole trap is loaded with a…
Lightsails are a promising spacecraft concept that can reach relativistic speeds via propulsion by laser light, allowing travel to nearby stars within a human lifetime. The success of a lightsail mission requires that any motion in the…