Related papers: Microscopic Engine Powered by Critical Demixing
Besides its fundamental interest, understanding the dynamics of pair breaking in superconducting nanostructures is a central issue to optimize the performances of superconducting devices such as qubits or photon detectors. However, despite…
Molecular machines transduce free energy between different forms throughout all living organisms. While truly machines in their own right, unlike their macroscopic counterparts molecular machines are characterized by stochastic…
Biomimicry has been utilized in many branches of science and engineering to develop devices for enhanced and better performance. The application of nanotechnology has made life easier in modern times. It has offered a way to manipulate…
Recent progress in nanofabrication has led to tremendous technological developments in nanophotonics, which rely on the interaction of light with nanostructured matter. Nanophotonics has experienced a large surge of interest in recent…
The cytoskeleton is an active composite of filamentous proteins that dictates diverse mechanical properties and processes in eukaryotic cells by generating forces and autonomously restructuring itself. Enzymatic motors that act on the…
Advanced photonic tools may enable researchers and clinicians to visualize, track, control and manipulate biological processes at the single-cell level in space and time. Biological systems are complex and highly organized on both spatial…
Many biological functions are executed by molecular machines, which consume energy and convert it into mechanical work. Biological machines have evolved to transport cargo, facilitate folding of proteins and RNA, remodel chromatin and…
Controllable rotation of micro-/nano-objects provides tremendous opportunities for cellular biology, three-dimensional (3D) imaging, and micro/nanorobotics. Among different rotation techniques, optical rotation is particularly attractive…
Optomechanics is concerned with the use of light to control mechanical objects. As a field, it has been hugely successful in the production of precise and novel sensors, the development of low-dissipation nanomechanical devices, and the…
Physics of self-propelled objects at the nanoscale is a rapidly developing research field where recent experiments focused on motion of individual catalytic enzymes. Contrary to the experimental advancements, theoretical understanding of…
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) perform wastewater treatment and electricity production through the conversion of organic matter using microorganisms. For practical applications, it has been suggested that greater efficiency can be achieved by…
Nanofluidics, the field interested in flows at the smallest scales, has grown at a fast pace, reaching an ever finer control offluidic and ionic transport at the molecular level. Still, artificial pores are far from reaching the wealth of…
Using optical tweezers and a haptic device, microspheres having diameters ranging from 3 to 4 um (floating in a fluid solution) are manipulated in order to form patterns of coupled optical microresonators by assembling the spheres via…
Thermal relaxation of nanoscale magnetic islands, mimicking Ising macrospins, is indispensable for studies of geometrically frustrated artificial spin systems and low-energy nanomagnetic computation. Currently-used heating schemes based on…
Finite-time quantum heat engines are of practical relevance as they can generate finite-power, distinguishing them from ideal quasistatic engines typically used for theoretical purposes. However, these engines encounter energy losses due to…
Current developments in molecular electronics, motors and chemical sensors could enable constructing large numbers of devices able to sense, compute and act in micron-scale environments. Such microscopic machines, of sizes comparable to…
The collective behavior of chemically propelled sphere-dimer motors made from linked catalytic and noncatalytic spheres in a quasi-two-dimensional confined geometry is studied using a coarse-grained microscopic dynamical model. Chemical…
Energy conversion is most efficient for micro or nano machines with tight coupling between input and output power. To reach meaningful amounts of power, ensembles of $N$ such machines must be considered. We use a model system to demonstrate…
Microsystems become part of everyday life but their application is restricted by lack of strong and fast motors (actuators) converting energy into motion. For example, widespread internal combustion engines cannot be scaled down because…
Molecular motor proteins form the basis of cellular dynamics. Recently, notable efforts have led to the creation of their DNA-based mimics, which can carry out complex nanoscale motion. However, such functional analogues have not yet been…