Topological transport control of colloidal particles

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Thomas Martin Fischer; Privatdozent Dr. Daniel de las Heras
• Subject Area: Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics ; Experimental Condensed Matter Physics ; Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2020 to 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 440764520

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

We have studied experimentally and with computer simulations the transport of magnetic particles on top of magnetic patterns. The motion is driven by either a modulation loop of the orientation of a uniform external magnetic field or by a drift force. The application of an adiabatic modulation loop of the direction of an external magnetic field to magnetic colloids or macroscopic magnetic particles on a periodic pattern offers unprecedented control over the motion and assembly of such colloids or particles. The motion is topologically protected since only those loops that wind around special orientations of the external field induce particle transport. The set of winding numbers around the special orientations is the topological invariant that protects the motion. The colloidal or macroscopic particles are sorted into topological classes and the transport of each class can be controlled independently and simultaneously with the other topological classes. The use of non-periodic patterns facilitates the transport of identical colloidal particles independently and simultaneously. The complexity of the loop can be imprinted in either the pattern or the modulation loop. In twisted magnetic patterns high mobility peaks of non-topologically driven particles emerge at non generic magic angles, but these mobility peaks in contrast to topologically driven systems are very fragile and can be easily destroyed via the analogue of an Anderson transition.

Link to the final report

https://doi.org/10.34657/17899

Publications

• Simultaneous polydirectional transport of colloidal bipeds. Nature Communications, 11(1).
  Mirzaee-Kakhki, Mahla; Ernst, Adrian; de las Heras, Daniel; Urbaniak, Maciej; Stobiecki, Feliks; Gördes, Jendrik; Reginka, Meike; Ehresmann, Arno & Fischer, Thomas M.
  
• Braiding with magnetic octupoles. Physical Review Research, 3(1).
  Lachner, Thomas; de las Heras, Daniel & Fischer, Thomas M.
  
• Gauge invariant and gauge dependent aspects of topological walking colloidal bipeds. Soft Matter, 17(6), 1663-1674.
  Mirzaee-Kakhki, Mahla; Ernst, Adrian; de las Heras, Daniel; Urbaniak, Maciej; Stobiecki, Feliks; Tomita, Andreea; Huhnstock, Rico; Koch, Iris; Ehresmann, Arno; Holzinger, Dennis & Fischer, Thomas M.
  
• The geometric phase and the dry friction of sleeping tops on inclined planes. Journal of Physics Communications, 5(8), 085003.
  Barthmann, Sven & Fischer, Thomas M.
  
• Adiabatic and irreversible classical discrete time crystals. SciPost Physics, 13(4).
  Ernst, Adrian; Rossi, Anna M. E. B. & Fischer, Thomas
  
• Colloidal transport in twisted lattices of optical tweezers. Physical Review E, 106(3).
  Stuhlmüller, Nico C. X.; Fischer, Thomas M. & de, las Heras Daniel
  
• Enhanced colloidal transport in twisted magnetic patterns. Communications Physics, 5(1).
  Stuhlmüller, Nico C. X.; Fischer, Thomas M. & de, las Heras Daniel
  
• Simultaneous and independent topological control of identical microparticles in non-periodic energy landscapes. Nature Communications, 14(1).
  Stuhlmüller, Nico C. X.; Farrokhzad, Farzaneh; Kuświk, Piotr; Stobiecki, Feliks; Urbaniak, Maciej; Akhundzada, Sapida; Ehresmann, Arno; Fischer, Thomas M. & de, las Heras Daniel
  
• Disorder scattering in classical flat channel transport of particles between twisted magnetic square patterns. Communications Physics, 7(1).
  Rossi, Anna M. E. B.; Ernst, Adrian; Dörfler, Magdalena & Fischer, Thomas M.