Field-responsive colloidal assemblies defined by magnetic anisotropy
- Author(s)
- Gabi Steinbach, Michael Schreiber, Dennis Nissen, Manfred Albrecht, Ekaterina Novak, Pedro A. Sanchez, Sofia S. Kantorovich, Sibylle Gemming, Artur Erbe
- Abstract
Particle dispersions provide a promising tool for the engineering of functional materials that exploit self-assembly of complex structures. Dispersion made from magnetic colloidal particles is a great choice; they are biocompatible and remotely controllable among many other advantages. However, their dominating dipolar interaction typically limits structural complexity to linear arrangements. This paper shows how a magnetostatic equilibrium state with noncollinear arrangement of the magnetic moments, as reported for ferromagnetic Janus particles, enables the controlled self-organization of diverse structures in two dimensions via constant and low-frequency external magnetic fields. Branched clusters of staggered chains, compact clusters, linear chains, and dispersed single particles can be formed and interconverted reversibly in a controlled way. The structural diversity is a consequence of both the inhomogeneity and the spatial extension of the magnetization distribution inside the particles. We draw this conclusion from calculations based on a model of spheres with multiple shifted dipoles. The results demonstrate that fundamentally new possibilities for responsive magnetic materials can arise from interactions between particles with a spatially extended, anisotropic magnetization distribution.
- Organisation(s)
- Computational and Soft Matter Physics
- External organisation(s)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Universität Augsburg, Ural Federal University, Technische Universität Chemnitz
- Journal
- Physical Review E
- Volume
- 100
- No. of pages
- 10
- ISSN
- 2470-0045
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.100.012608
- Publication date
- 07-2019
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103015 Condensed matter
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Condensed Matter Physics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics, Statistics and Probability
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/0bb1e8b5-b14b-4509-9aad-69ad251bdb67