Realization of the Najafi-Golestanian microswimmer

Abstract

A paradigmatic microswimmer is the three-linked-spheres model, which follows a minimalist approach for propulsion by shape shifting. As such, it has been the subject of numerous analytical and numerical studies. In this Rapid Communication, an experimental three-linked-spheres swimmer is created by self-assembling ferromagnetic particles at an air-water interface. It is powered by a uniform oscillating magnetic field. A model, using two harmonic oscillators, reproduces the experimental findings. Because the model remains general, the same approach could be used to design a variety of efficient microswimmers.

5 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (5)

• The hydrodynamics of swimming microorganisms
• Self-motile colloidal particles: from directed propulsion to random walk
• Analytic results for the three-sphere swimmer at low Reynolds number
• A basic swimmer at low Reynolds number
• Stability and dynamics of magnetocapillary interactions

Cited by in corpus (38)

• Viscotaxis: microswimmer navigation in viscosity gradients
• Self-learning how to swim at low Reynolds number
• Fission and fusion scenarios for magnetic microswimmer clusters
• Swimming trajectories of a three-sphere microswimmer near a wall
• State diagram of a three-sphere microswimmer in a channel
• Magnetocapillary self-assemblies: locomotion and micromanipulation along a liquid interface
• Efficiency limits of the three-sphere swimmer
• The Scallop Theorem and Swimming at the Mesoscale
• Tuning upstream swimming of micro-robots by shape and cargo size
• Surface microswimmers, harnessing the interface to self-propel
• Frequency-dependent higher-order Stokes singularities near a planar elastic boundary: implications for the hydrodynamics of an active microswimmer near an elastic interface
• Magnetically powered metachronal waves induce locomotion in self-assemblies
• Non-equilibrium probability flux of a thermally driven micromachine
• Magnetic microswimmers exhibit Bose-Einstein-like condensation
• Elastic three-sphere microswimmer in a viscous fluid
• Dynamics of a microswimmer-microplatelet composite
• Optimal motion of triangular magnetocapillary swimmers
• Nonreciprocality of a micromachine driven by a catalytic chemical reaction
• Capillary assemblies in a rotating magnetic field
• Reciprocal microswimmers in a viscoelastic fluid
• Generalized Three-Sphere Microswimmers
• A general perturbative approach for bead-based microswimmers reveals rich self-propulsion phenomena
• Hydrodynamic interaction between two elastic microswimmers
• Swimmer-microrheology
• Locomotion of magnetoelastic membranes in viscous fluids
• Irreversibility and entropy production of a thermally driven micromachine
• Three-disk microswimmer in a supported fluid membrane
• Rototaxis: localization of active motion under rotation
• Load response of shape-changing microswimmers scales with their energy efficiency
• Chemoreception and chemotaxis of a three-sphere swimmer
• The effect of axisymmetric confinement on propulsion of a three-sphere microswimmer
• Autonomous elastic microswimmer
• A three-sphere microswimmer in a structured fluid
• Regimes of motion of magnetocapillary swimmers
• Lattice Boltzmann simulations of two linear microswimmers using the immersed boundary method
• Boosting micromachine studies with Stokesian Dynamics
• Magnetically Driven Elastic Microswimmers: Exploiting Hysteretic Collapse for Autonomous Propulsion and Independent Control
• Clustering-induced self-propulsion of isotropic autophoretic particles