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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 20: Poster IIIa

BP 20.3: Poster

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 11:00–14:30, Poster B

Design and manufacture of self-propelled particles driven by light — •Jannis Fischer, Alejandro Jurado Jiménez, and Timo Betz — Third Institute of Physics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

In all living things, biochemical processes take place on scales that are not visible to the naked human eye. However, when compared to forces we encounter in our daily lives, other forces tend to be more dominant: Frictional forces have a considerable influence on the movements of particles while inertial forces can often be neglected [1]. Therefore, it is of great interest and also a challenge to create particles that can actively move on such scales. Getting micrometer-sized particles to move in a controlled manner within living tissue would prove to be a great advantage for specific drug delivery or the design of micro-robots. A fundamental part of movement is propulsion. If the particles themselves can generate active movement, they are called self-propelled particles. One recently proposed method is to use homogeneous light illumination in conjunction with transparent particles that demonstrate a gradient of refractive index. Here the refraction of the light leads to a momentum transfer, which then drives the active movement. In this work, both a simulation and the production of the corresponding particles are used to investigate which particle shape leads to the greatest forces and thus to the highest velocities.

[1] E.M. Purcell, American Journal of Physics, 45(1) (1977).

Keywords: Self-propelled particles; Light propulsion; 3D Nanoprinting; Active matter