Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Institut für Theoretische Physik II: Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
J Chem Phys. 2019 Mar 7;150(9):094905. doi: 10.1063/1.5079861.
Thanks to a constant energy input, active matter can self-assemble into phases with complex architectures and functionalities such as living clusters that dynamically form, reshape, and break-up, which are forbidden in equilibrium materials by the entropy maximization (or free energy minimization) principle. The challenge to control this active self-assembly has evoked widespread efforts typically hinging on engineering of the properties of individual motile constituents. Here, we provide a different route, where activity occurs as an emergent phenomenon only when individual building blocks bind together in a way that we control by laser light. Using experiments and simulations of two species of immotile microspheres, we exemplify this route by creating active molecules featuring a complex array of behaviors, becoming migrators, spinners, and rotators. The possibility to control the dynamics of active self-assembly via light-controllable nonreciprocal interactions will inspire new approaches to understand living matter and to design active materials.
由于持续的能量输入，活性物质可以自我组装成具有复杂结构和功能的相，例如活的聚集体，这些聚集体可以动态形成、重塑和分裂，而这在平衡材料中是被熵最大化（或自由能最小化）原理所禁止的。控制这种活性自组装的挑战引发了广泛的努力，这些努力通常依赖于对单个运动成分的特性的工程设计。在这里，我们提供了一种不同的途径，其中活性仅在单个构建块以我们通过激光光控制的方式结合在一起时才会作为一种突现现象出现。通过对两种非运动微球的实验和模拟，我们通过创建具有复杂行为阵列的活性分子来例证这种途径，这些分子成为迁移体、旋转体和旋转体。通过光控非互易相互作用来控制活性自组装动力学的可能性将激发人们对理解生命物质和设计活性材料的新方法。
