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As any physical object, light undergoing a circular trajectory features a constant extrinsic angular momentum. Within strong curvatures, this angular momentum can match the spin momentum of a photon, thus providing the opportunity of a…
We study the effects of the optical binding force on wavelength sized colloidal particles free to move in a counter-propagating beam. This work is motivated by the concept of using optical binding to direct the assembly of large numbers of…
In a single gallium nanoparticulate, self-assembled (from an atomic beam) in a nano-aperture at the tip of a tapered optical fiber, we have observed evidence for a sequence of reversible light-induced transformations between five different…
Bright, saturated structural colors in birds have inspired synthesis of self-assembled, disordered arrays of assembled nanoparticles with varied particle spacings and refractive indices. However, predicting colors of assembled…
Magnetic nanoparticles in a colloidal solution self-assemble in various aligned structures, which has a profound influence on the flow behavior. However, the precise role of the microstructure in the development of the rheological response…
Light's orbital angular momentum (OAM) is an unbounded degree of freedom emerging in helical beams that appears very advantageous technologically. Using a chiral microlaser, i.e. an integrated device that allows generating an emission…
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…
The generation of unidirectional motion has been a long-standing challenge in engineering of molecular motors. Here, a mechanism driving the rotation is presented based on electron current through helical orbitals on a $\pi$-bonded carbon…
Colloidal crystals exhibit structural color without any color pigment due to the crystals' periodic nanostructure, which can interfere with visible light. This crystal structure is iridescent as the resulting color changes with the viewing…
The progress of realizing colloidal structures mimicking natural forms of organization in condensed matter is inherently limited by the availability of suitable colloidal building blocks. To enable new forms of crystalline and…
Concentrated colloidal suspensions of nanorods often exhibit liquid-crystalline (LC) behavior. The transition to a nematic LC phase, with long-range orientational order of the particles, is usually well captured by Onsager's theory for hard…
Understanding nanoscale mechanisms responsible for the recently discovered ferroelectric nematics can be helped by direct visualization of self-assembly of strongly polar molecules. Here we report on scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)…
Colloidal particles can spontaneously self-assemble into ordered structures, which not only can manipulate the propagation of light, but also vibration or phonons. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we study the self-assembly of perfectly…
Colloidal particles in liquid crystals tend to induce topological defects and distortions of the molecular alignment within the surrounding anisotropic host medium, which results in elasticity-mediated interactions not accessible to their…
The self-assembly of colloidal diamond (CD) crystals is considered as one of the most coveted goals of nanotechnology, both from the technological and fundamental points of view. For applications, colloidal diamond is a photonic crystal…
Bimetallic rod-shaped nanomotors swim autonomously in hydrogen peroxide solutions. Here we present a scaling analysis, computational simulations, and experimental data that show that the nanomotor locomotion is driven by fluid slip around…
We have observed reversible light-induced mechanical switching for a single organic molecule bound to a metal surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to image the features of an individual azobenzene molecule on Au(111) before…
We study a model of synthetic molecular motor - a [3]-catenane consisting of two small macrocycles mechanically interlocked with a bigger one - subjected to a time-dependent driving using stochastic thermodynamics. The model presents…
We present modeling approaches to explain mechanisms of control of uniformity (narrow distribution) of sizes and shapes in synthesis of nanosize crystals and micron-size colloids. We consider those situations when the nanocrystals are…
The self-assembly mechanism of one-end-open carbon nanotubes (CNTs) suspended in an aqueous solution was studied by molecular dynamics simulations. It was shown that two one-end-open CNTs with different diameters can coaxially self-assemble…