Rolling Microswarms along Acoustic Virtual Walls

Rolling Microswarms along Acoustic Virtual Walls | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Rolling Microswarms along Acoustic Virtual Walls Zhiyuan Zhang, Alexander Sukhov, Jens Harting, Paolo Malgaretti, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1505456/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 29 Nov, 2022 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Rolling is a ubiquitous mode of transport utilized by both living organisms and engineered systems. Rolling, on the microscale, has become particularly interesting for the manipulation of microswarms, since enacting such motion does not require special prefabrication techniques. However, rolling motion has to date been restricted by the need for a physical boundary to break the spatial homogeneity of surrounding mediums, which limits its prospects for microswarm navigation and cargo delivery to locations with no boundaries. Here, in the absence of real physical boundaries, we show that chain-shaped microswarms can undergo rolling motion along virtual walls in the aqueous medium, impelled by a combination of magnetic and acoustic fields. A rotational magnetic field causes individual particles to self-assemble and rotate, while the pressure nodes generated by an acoustic standing wave field serve as virtual walls. The acoustic radiation force pushes the rotating microswarms towards a virtual wall and provides the reaction force needed to break their fore-aft motion symmetry and induce rolling. We develop an experiment-supported theoretical model to quantify the net displacement generated by rolling. Finally, we demonstrate that rolling can be achieved along arbitrary trajectories by dynamically switching the orientation of the virtual walls and the rotational directions of the magnetic field. Consequently, the concept of reconfigurable virtual walls developed here overcomes the fundamental limitation of a physical boundary being required for universal rolling movements. Rolling Microswarm Micromanipulation Acoustics Magnetics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files Movie1.mp4 Microswarms roll along the acoustic virtual wall Movie2.mp4 Dynamic orientation switching of the acoustic standing wave field Movie3.mp4 Microswarms exhibit bidirectional rolling Movie4.mp4 Trajectory tracking of a single microchain in one rolling cycle Movie5.mp4 Microswarms write the word “ETH” SupplementaryInformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 29 Nov, 2022 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-1505456","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":98071896,"identity":"d7ccb6a2-4011-4cdc-b75e-4f1dfed878a4","order_by":0,"name":"Zhiyuan Zhang","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6019-1863","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhiyuan","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":98071897,"identity":"b976a63d-8376-48f6-bb4b-669f3e49a442","order_by":1,"name":"Alexander Sukhov","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Helmholtz Institute 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