Related papers: Collective behavior in the kinetics and equilibriu…
Actuation remains a signifcant challenge in soft robotics. Actuation by light has important advantages: objects can be actuated from a distance, distinct frequencies can be used to actuate and control distinct modes with minimal…
Exciting electrons in solids with intense light pulses offers the possibility of generating new states of matter through nonthermal means and controlling their macroscopic properties on femto- to picosecond timescales. One way to manipulate…
We present experiments on the collective dynamics of macroscopic photoactive self-propelled particles subjected to spatiotemporally varying excitation. The particles move within an arena divided into two regions with different illumination…
The work is presented, leading to the universal contact molecular mechanism of phase transitions and other reactions in solid state. The two components of the mechanism - nucleation and interface propagation - are investigated in detail and…
Nonlinear dynamics of photoinduced cooperative phenomena is studied by numerical calculations on a model of molecular crystals. We found that the photoinduced nucleation process is triggered only when certain amount of excitation energy is…
The interaction of light with photosynthetic proteins is an extremely efficient process and has been thoroughly investigated. However, exploring light-matter interactions in hybrid nano-solid-photosynthetic proteins is a relatively new and…
The emergent photoactive materials through photochemistry make it possible to directly convert photon energy to mechanical work. There is much recent work in developing appropriate materials and a promising new system is semi-crystalline…
Light-activated self-propelled colloids are synthesized and their active motion is studied using optical microscopy. We propose a versatile route using different photoactive materials, and demonstrate a multiwavelength activation and…
The purpose of this work is to use active particles to study the effect of facilitation on supercooled liquids. To this end we investigate the behavior of a model supercooled liquid doped with intermittently active and intermittently slowed…
Many active particles, both of biological and synthetic origin, can have a light controllable propulsion speed, a property that in biology is commonly referred to as photokinesis. Here we investigate directed transport of photokinetic…
Photoactive liquid crystal elastomers are polymer networks of liquid crystal mesogens embedded with chromophores like azobenzene. They undergo large deformation when illuminated by light of a certain wavelength through photochemical…
Photo-induced phase-transitions (PIPTs) driven by highly cooperative interactions are of fundamental interest as they offer a way to tune and control material properties on ultrafast timescales. Due to strong correlations and interactions,…
Active matter drives its constituent agents to move autonomously by harnessing free energy, leading to diverse emergent states with relevance to both biological processes and inanimate functionalities. Achieving maximum reconfigurability of…
Designing microscopic and nanoscopic self-propelled particles and characterising their motion has become a major scientific challenge over the past decades. To this purpose, phoretic effects, namely propulsion mechanisms relying on local…
Photonic molecules, named by analogy with chemical molecules, are clusters of closely located electromagnetically interacting microcavities or "photonic atoms". As two or several microcavities are brought close together, their optical modes…
We study the dynamics of initial nucleation processes of photoinduced structural change of molecular crystals. In order to describe the nonadiabatic transition in each molecule, we employ a model of localized electrons coupled with a fully…
Organic photoswitchable molecules have struggled in solid state form to fulfill their remarkable potential, in terms of photoswitching performance and long-term stability when compared to their inorganic counterparts. We report the concept…
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…
We report the first investigation of the photo-response of the conductivity of a new class of organic semiconductors based on functionalized pentacene. These materials form high quality single crystals that exhibit a thermally activated…
The illumination of catalytic surfaces with a continuous or pulsed stream of photons dynamically modulates surface chemistry for faster rates, higher conversion, or product selectivity control. To establish fundamental principles of dynamic…