Related papers: Nanoalignment by Critical Casimir Torques
Colloids self-assemble into various organized superstructures determined by particle interactions. There is a tremendous progress in both the scientific understanding and applications of self-assemblies of single-type identical particles.…
The application of nanocrystals as heterogeneous catalysts and plasmonic nanoparticles requires fine control of their shape and chemical composition. A promising idea to achieve synergistic effects is to combine two distinct chemical and/or…
Skyrmions are chiral swirling magnetization structures with nanoscale size. These structures have attracted considerable attention due to their topological stability and promising applicability in nanodevices, since they can be displaced…
In net-neutral systems correlations between charge fluctuations generate strong attractive thermal Casimir forces and engineering these forces to optimize nanodevice performance is an important challenge. We show how the normal and lateral…
Aggregation of ice particles is a fundamental process in the interstellar medium as well as in planet formation. Dedicated to study the contact physics of nm-ice particles we developed a thermal gradient force microscope. This allows us and…
The thermal Casimir effect, arising from fluctuating electromagnetic fields of thermally agitated charges, induces thermosensitive forces and presents a novel approach to detecting nanoscale hot electrons, elusive yet ubiquitous in modern…
We study the critical Casimir interaction between two spherical colloids immersed in a binary liquid mixture close to its critical demixing point. The surface of each colloid prefers one species of the mixture with the exception of a…
The Casimir force between uncharged metallic surfaces originates from quantum mechanical zero point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. We demonstrate that this quantum electrodynamical effect has a profound influence on the…
The center-of-mass motion of optically trapped dielectric nanoparticles in vacuum is extremely well-decoupled from its environment, making a powerful tool for measurements of feeble sub-attonewton forces. We demonstrate a method to trap and…
Periodic assemblies of nanoparticles are central to surface patterning, with applications in biosensing, energy conversion, and nanofabrication. Evaporation of colloidal droplets on substrates provides a simple yet effective route to…
The Casimir force is the ultimate background in ongoing searches of extra-gravitational forces in the micrometer range. Eccentric cylinders offer favorable experimental conditions for such measurements as spurious gravitational and…
Based on renormalization group concepts and explicit mean field calculations we study the universal contribution to the effective force and torque acting on an ellipsoidal colloidal particle which is dissolved in a critical fluid and is…
Friction between ordered, atomically smooth surfaces at the nanoscale (nanofriction) is often governed by stick-slip processes. To test long-standing atomistic models of such processes, we implement a synthetic nanofriction interface…
This letter proposes a scheme for transporting nanoparticles immersed in a fluid, relying on quantum vacuum fluctuations. The mechanism lies in the inhomogeneity-induced lateral Casimir force between a nanoparticle and a gradient…
Self-assembly of nanoparticles can enable composites with pre-designed properties but remains challenged by reproducing structural diversity of atomic and molecular crystals. We combine anisotropic elastic and weakly screened electrostatic…
Skyrmions have attracted rapidly growing interest due to their topological properties and unique aspects for potential novel applications such as data storage and soft robotics. They can also serve as key elements for materials by design,…
Inspired by emergent behaviors of living matter, there is increasing interest in developing approaches to create dynamic patterns and structures in synthetic materials with controllable complexity to enable functionalities that are not…
Light-induced rotation of absorbing microscopic particles by transfer of angular momentum from light to the material raises the possibility of optically driven micromachines. The phenomenon has been observed using elliptically polarized…
By using silicon oxide based aerogels we show numerically that the Casimir force can be reduced several orders of magnitude, making its effect negligible in nanodevices. This decrease in the Casimir force is also present even when the…
We want to study the dynamics of a simple linear harmonic micro spring which is under the influence of the quantum Casimir force/pressure and thus behaves as a (an) nonlinear (anharmonic) Casimir oscillator. Generally,the equation of motion…