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We study propulsion arising from microscopic colloidal rotors dynamically assembled and driven in a viscous fluid upon application of an elliptically polarized rotating magnetic field. Close to a confining plate, the motion of this self-assembled microscopic worm results from the cooperative flow generated by the spinning particles which act as a hydrodynamic "conveyor belt." Chains of rotors propel faster than individual ones, until reaching a saturation speed at distances where induced-flow additivity vanishes. By combining experiments and theoretical arguments, we elucidate the mechanism of motion and fully characterize the propulsion speed in terms of the field parameters. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.138301 PACS numbers: 82.70.Dd, 87.85.gj Propulsion in viscous fluids plays a key role in many different contexts of biology, physics, and chemistry. From a fundamental perspective, the transport of microscopic objects in a liquid medium poses the appealing challenge to find an adequate swimming strategy due to the negligible role of inertial force compared to viscous one. At low Reynolds number the Navier-Stokes equations become time reversible [1], and any strategy based on reciprocal motion, i.e., a motion composed by symmetric backward and forward displacements, will fail to produce net propulsion [2].Facing this challenge, the last few years have witnessed the theoretical propositions of several suitable geometries and procedures to propel micromachines in viscous fluids [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Parallel advances in miniaturization have led to the generation of new classes of chemically powered [10,11] or externally actuated [12][13][14][15] prototypes with exciting applications in emerging fields such as microsurgery [16,17] or lab-on-a-chip technology [18,19].In contrast to reaction driven microswimmers, actuated magnetic micropropellers do not present the autonomous behavior that distinguishes force-and torque-free motion of biological organisms [20], but instead avoid efficiency reduction due to fuel shortage or directional randomization. To date, three main approaches have been developed to transport microscopic particles in a viscous fluid using uniform magnetic fields [21], namely, by actuating flexible magnetic tails [12,22], by rotating helical shaped structures [23,24], or by using the close proximity to a bounding wall [25,26]. In the latter case, it is well established that in the Stokes regime the rotational motion of a body close to a surface can be rectified into net translation due to the hydrodynamic interaction with the boundary [27]. Surface rotors are optimal to work in confined geometries such as microfluidic channels or biological networks characterized by narrow pores.In this Letter we show that an ensemble of rotors dynamically self-assembled via attractive dipolar interactions can be propelled by a hydrodynamic "conveyor-belt" effect generated by the cooperative flow of the spinning particles close to a surface. Recent theoretical works [28][29][30] have addressed the rich dynamic...

We demonstrate a general method to assemble and propel highly maneuverable colloidal carpets which can be steered via remote control in any direction of the plane. These colloidal micropropellers are composed by ensemble of spinning rotors, and can be readily used to entrap, transport and release biological cargos on command via an hydrodynamic conveyor-belt effect. An efficient control of the cargo transportation combined with remarkable "healing" ability to surpass obstacles, demonstrate a great potential towards development of multifunctional smart devices at the microscale. arXiv:1601.00804v1 [cond-mat.soft]

We study the formation and dynamics of dipolar rings composed by microscopic ferromagnetic ellipsoids, which self-assemble in water by switching the direction of the applied field. We show how to manipulate these fragile structures and control their shape via application of external static and oscillating magnetic fields. We introduce a theoretical framework which describes the ring deformation under an applied field, allowing to understand the underlying physical mechanism. Our microscopic rings are finally used to capture, entrap and later release a biological cell via magnetic command, i.e. performing a simple operation which can be implemented in other microfluidic devices which make use of ferromagnetic particles.