The world’s smallest flash mob: Modulating colloidal interactions using light

ORAL

Abstract

We present a new approach to dynamically control systems of DNA-coated colloids using light-modulated interactions. To achieve this control, we infiltrate particles with dyes that cause local heating upon illumination with the appropriate wavelength, thereby affecting the DNA binding. With this new control, we rapidly and reversibly switch between binding and unbinding, and we demonstrate how this modulation can be used to understand the behavior of driven, out-of-equilibrium systems.

*EWG was supported by the DoD through the NDSEG Fellowship Program. VNM was supported by an Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship. This work was funded by NSF grant no. DMR-1435964 and by the Harvard MRSEC grant no. DMR-1420570.

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Presenters

  • Emily Gehrels

    • School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University

Authors

  • Emily Gehrels

    • School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University

  • Vinothan Manoharan

    • School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University
    • Harvard Univ
    • Harvard University
    • Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University
    • Physics and Chemical Engineering, Harvard University