Related papers: Gating and tunable confinement of active colloids …
We outline a basic strategy of how self-propulsion can be used to improve the yield of a typical colloidal self-assembly process. The success of this approach is predicated on the thoughtful design of the colloidal building block as well as…
We show that colloidal molecular crystal states interacting with a periodic substrate, such as an optical trap array, and a rotating external field can undergo a rapid pattern switching in which the orientation of the crystal changes. In…
Colloidal particles, amphiphiles, and functionalized nanoparticles are examples of systems that frequently exhibit short-range attractions coupled with long-range repulsions. In this work, we observe striking differences in the dynamics of…
The behavior of particles driven through a narrow constriction is investigated in experiment and simulation. The system of particles adapts to the confining potentials and the interaction energies by a self-consistent arrangement of the…
The interaction between passive and active/driven particles has introduced a new way to control colloidal suspension properties from particle aggregation to crystallization. Here, we focus on the hydrodynamic interaction between a single…
Optical trapping can be used to manipulate the three-dimensional (3-D) motion of spherical particles based on the simple prediction of optical forces and the responding motion of samples. However, controlling the 3-D behaviour of…
Patchy particles are a class of colloids with functionalized surfaces. Through surface functionalization, the strength and directionality of the colloidal interactions are tunable allowing control over coordination of the particle.…
We theoretically study the motion of magnetic colloidal particles above a magnetic pattern and compare the predictions with Brownian dynamics simulations. The pattern consists of alternating square domains of positive and negative…
Anisotropic particles oriented in a specific direction can act as artificial atoms and molecules, and their controlled assembly can result in a wide variety of ordered structures. Towards this, we demonstrate the orientation transitions of…
Active fluids generate spontaneous, often chaotic mesoscale flows. Harnessing these flows to drive embedded soft materials into structures with controlled length scales and lifetimes is a key challenge at the interface between the fields of…
An active colloidal fluid comprised of self-propelled spinning particles injecting energy and angular momentum at the microscale demonstrates spontaneous collective states that range from flocks to coherent vortices. Despite their seeming…
Motility is a basic feature of living microorganisms, and how it works is often determined by environmental cues. Recent efforts have focused on develop- ing artificial systems that can mimic microorganisms, and in particular their…
Regulation to a well-defined target state is a fundamental requirement for achieving reliable functionality in living systems and maintaining specific non-equilibrium states. The control of certain properties and functionalities of systems…
A self-consistent field theory study of lock and key type interactions between sterically stabilized colloids in polymer solution is performed. Both the key particle and the lock cavity are assumed to have cylindrical shape, and their…
Within a general framework we study the effective, deformation-induced interaction between two colloids trapped at a fluid interface. As an application, we consider the interface deformation owing to the electrostatic field of charged…
The addition of co-solutes to colloidal suspensions is often employed to induce tunable depletion interactions. In this work we investigate effective colloidal interactions arising from binary co-solute mixtures of hard spheres and patchy…
Active systems such as microorganisms and self-propelled particles show a plethora of collective phenomena, including swarming, clustering, and phase separation. Control over the propulsion direction and switchability of the interactions…
Active matter systems - such as a collection of active colloidal particles - operate far from equilibrium with complex inter-particle interactions that govern their collective dynamics. Predicting the collective dynamics of such systems may…
There is growing interest in functional, adaptive devices built from colloidal subunits of micron size or smaller. A colloidal material with dynamic mechanical properties could facilitate such microrobotic machines. Here we study via…
How frictional effects emerge at the microscopic level in particulate materials remains a challenging question, particularly in systems subject to thermal fluctuations due to the transient nature of interparticle contacts. Here, we directly…