Opto‐Hydrodynamic Driven 3D Dynamic Microswarm Petals

Abstract

Artificial microswarms with a collective intelligence that can execute cooperative tasks will serve as intelligent micro/nanorobot systems for many biomedical and microengineering applications. However, it remains challenging to construct microswarms with 3D dynamic and reconfigurable structures that can execute complex spatiotemporal‐dependent tasks. Here, simply using a tapered optical fiber (TOF) with 1.55 µm wavelength light irradiation, a convenient opto‐hydrodynamic strategy for 3D dynamic microswarm actuation based on photothermal gradient‐induced Marangoni effect is reported. With light irradiation at the water‐air interface, randomly distributed microparticles are reorganized into firework‐like 3D swarms with four petals. Such petals in the microswarm are controllably reconfigurable by adjusting the angle between TOF and water‐air interface. These microswarms are also deformable and capable of performing stable migration by simply moving the TOF. Importantly, this opto‐hydrodynamic strategy is applicable for the formation of artificial 3D‐dynamic bio‐microswarms using different biological cells, which further facilitate the regulation of biological processes such as bacteria growth/division. This opto‐hydrodynamic strategy provides a new solution for 3D dynamic microswarm formation, with many potentials for biomedical and microengineering applications that need spatiotemporal‐dependent individual cooperation.