The mechanical response in a fluid of synthetic antiferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic microdiscs with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

In this article, we demonstrate the magneto-mechanic behavior in a fluid environment of perpendicularly magnetized microdiscs with antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling. When suspended in a fluid and under the influence of a simple uniaxial applied magnetic field sequence, the microdiscs mechanically rotate to access the magnetic saturation processes that are either that of the easy axis, hard axis, or in-between the two, in order to lower their energy. Further, these transitions enable the magnetic particles to form reconfigurable magnetic chains, and transduce torque from uniaxial applied fields. These microdiscs offer an attractive platform for the fabrication of fluid based micro- and nanodevices, and dynamically self assembled complex architectures.