Controlling collective rotational patterns of magnetic rotors.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31619673.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-12665-w and PMC identifier 6795886.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Magnetic actuation is widely used in engineering specific forms of controlled motion in microfluidic applications. A challenge, however, is how to extract different desired responses from different components in the system using the same external magnetic drive. Using experiments, simulations, and theoretical arguments, we present emergent rotational patterns in an array of identical magnetic rotors under an uniform, oscillating magnetic field. By changing the relative strength of the external field strength versus the dipolar interactions between the rotors, different collective modes are selected by the rotors. When the dipole interaction is dominant the rotors swing upwards or downwards in alternating stripes, reflecting the spin-ice symmetry of the static configuration. For larger spacings, when the external field dominates over the dipolar interactions, the rotors undergo full rotations, with different quarters of the array turning in different directions. Our work sheds light on how collective behaviour can be engineered in magnetic systems.