Opto-Hydrodynamic Driven 3D Dynamic Microswarm Petals

Artificial microswarms with a collective intelligence that can execute cooperative tasks will serve as intelligent micro/nanorobot systems for many biomedical and microengineering applications. However, it remains challenging to construct microswarms with 3D dynamic and reconfigurable structures that can execute complex spatiotemporal-dependent tasks. Here, simply using a tapered optical fiber (TOF) with 1.55 & mu;m wavelength light irradiation, a convenient opto-hydrodynamic strategy for 3D dynamic microswarm actuation based on photothermal gradient-induced Marangoni effect is reported. With light irradiation at the water-air interface, randomly distributed microparticles are reorganized into firework-like 3D swarms with four petals. Such petals in the microswarm are controllably reconfigurable by adjusting the angle between TOF and water-air interface. These microswarms are also deformable and capable of performing stable migration by simply moving the TOF. Importantly, this opto-hydrodynamic strategy is applicable for the formation of artificial 3D-dynamic bio-microswarms using different biological cells, which further facilitate the regulation of biological processes such as bacteria growth/division. This opto-hydrodynamic strategy provides a new solution for 3D dynamic microswarm formation, with many potentials for biomedical and microengineering applications that need spatiotemporal-dependent individual cooperation. A convenient opto-hydrodynamic strategy for 3D dynamic microswarm petals actuation based on the photothermal gradient-induced Marangoni effect is proposed. Such microswarm petals are controllably reconfigurable, deformable, and capable of performing stable migration. Importantly, this opto-hydrodynamic strategy is applicable for the formation of artificial 3D-dynamic bio-microswarms using different biological cells, which further facilitate the regulation of biological processes such as bacteria growth/division.image