Propulsion of Planar V‐Shaped Microswimmers in a Conically Rotating Magnetic Field

Abstract

Planar magnetic microswimmers bear great potential for in vivo biomedical applications as they can be mass‐produced at minimal costs using standard photolithography techniques. Therefore, it is central to understand how to control their motion. This study examines the propulsion of planar V‐shaped microswimmers in an aqueous solution powered by a conically rotating magnetic field and compares the experimental results with theory. Propulsion is investigated upon altering the cone angle of the driving field. It is shown that a V‐shaped microswimmer magnetized along its symmetry axis exhibits unidirectional in‐sync propulsion with a constant (frequency‐independent) velocity in a limited band of actuation frequencies. It is also demonstrated that the motion of individual and multiple in‐plane magnetized planar microswimmers in a conically rotating field can be efficiently controlled.

Keywords

• low-Reynolds-number flows
• magnetic control
• microswimmers
• propulsion