Optothermal Evolution of Active Colloidal Matter in a Defocused Laser Trap

Optothermal interaction of active colloidal matter can facilitate environmental cues, which can influence the dynamics of active soft matter systems. The optically induced thermal effect can be harnessed to study non-equilibrium thermodynamics as well as applied to self-propel colloids and form assemblies. In this work, we employ a defocused laser trap to form self-evolving colloidal active matter. The optothermal interaction of the active colloids in both focused and defocused optical traps has been investigated to ascertain their thermophoretic behavior, which shows a long-range attraction and a short-range repulsion between the colloids. The optical gradient field-enabled attraction and the short-range repulsion between the active colloids have been harnessed to form a re-configurable dynamic assembly. Additionally, the assembly undergoes self-evolution as a new colloid joins the structure. Further, we show that the incident polarization state of the optical field can be employed as a parameter to modulate the structural orientation of the active colloids. The simple defocused optical field-enabled assembly can serve as a model to understand the collective dynamics of active matter systems and can be harnessed as a re-configurable microscopic engine.

Automated summary

In this study, the thermophoretic behavior of active colloids was investigated through optothermal interaction, and a re-configurable dynamic assembly was formed using the optical gradient-enabled attraction and short-range repulsion between the colloids. The assembly also exhibited self-evolution as a new colloid joined the structure. Additionally, the structural orientation of the colloids could be modulated by the incident polarization state of the optical field.