Related papers: Reconfigurable assembly of nematic colloids comman…
Development of artificial materials exhibiting unusual optical properties is one of the major strands of current photonics research. Of particular interest are soft-matter systems reconfigurable by external stimuli that play an important…
Active materials with distinctive nonequilibrium properties have diverse materials science applications. Active systems are common in living matter, such as the filament network in the cell that is activated by molecular motors, and in…
Nanostructured dielectric metasurfaces offer unprecedented opportunities to manipulate light by imprinting an arbitrary phase-gradient on an impinging wavefront. This has resulted in the realization of a range of flat analogs to classical…
Optical activation of material properties illustrates the potentials held by tuning light-matter interactions with impacts ranging from basic science to technological applications. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that composite…
We explore the diffusion dynamics of a Brownian microparticle in a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal (LCLC). In the planarly oriented nematic phase, the microparticle exhibits levitation and anisotropic two-dimensional diffusion. Upon…
Active materials are capable of converting free energy into mechanical work to produce autonomous motion, and exhibit striking collective dynamics that biology relies on for essential functions. Controlling those dynamics and transport in…
We create controllable active particles in the form of metal-dielectric Janus colloids which acquire motility through a nematic liquid crystal film by transducing the energy of an imposed perpendicular AC electric field. We achieve complete…
Micro-transfer printing is an assembly technology that enables large-scale integration of diverse materials and components from micro- to nano-scale. However, traditional micro-transfer printing technologies lack dynamic selectivity,…
Controlled micro- to meso-scale porosity is a common materials design goal with possible applications ranging from molecular gas adsorption to particle size selective permeability or solubility. Here, we use inverse methods of statistical…
Photocatalysis in atomically thin semiconductors is often limited by rapid electron-hole recombination, making it difficult to translate favorable band structures into efficient chemical function. Here we propose symmetry-defined periodic…
DNA-coated particles are promising as building blocks for functional and finite-sized assemblies because they can be programmed with orthogonal interactions owing to the sequence-specific hybridization of DNA strands. To fully exploit this…
Self-assembled nano and micro-structures, particularly those capable of responsive erasure and regeneration, have garnered significant interest for their applications in smart photonics and electronics. However, current techniques for…
Monopole-like electrostatic interactions are ubiquitous in biology and condensed matter, but they are often screened by counter-ions and cannot be switched from attractive to repulsive. In colloidal science, where the prime goal is to…
In this review we discuss recent advances in the self-assembly of self-propelled colloidal particles and highlight some of the most exciting results in this field with a specific focus on dry active matter. We explore this phenomenology…
Complex colloidal cluster morphologies are desirable for the fabrication of advanced materials, such as photonic crystals and meta-materials, and can be formed through evaporation-driven packing. By coupling lattice Boltzmann and discrete…
Bottom-up assembly of nanocrystals (NCs) into ordered arrays, or superlattices (SLs), is a promising route to design materials with new functionalities, but the degree of control over assembly into functional structures remains challenging.…
We discuss two aspects of the plasmofluidic assembly of plasmonic nanostructures at the metal fluid interface. First, we experimentally show how three and four spot evanescent wave excitation can lead to unconventional assembly of plasmonic…
Replicating the microstructure and near-unity excitation energy transfer efficiency in natural light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) remains a major challenge for synthetic energy-harvesting devices. Biological photosynthesis can spontaneously…
A composite porous polymer membrane with aligned CNTs in its matrix is developed which exhibits programmable, anisotropic actuation towards organic vapors. The alignment of CNTs in multiple directions and the gradient porous structure of…
The optimal functioning of nanopore-based biosensing tools necessitates rapid polymer capture from the ion reservoir. We identify an ionic correlation-induced transport mechanism that provides this condition without the chemical…