Light provides a powerful means of controlling physical behavior of materials but is rarely used to power and guide active matter systems. We demonstrate optical control of liquid crystalline topological solitons dubbed “skyrmions”, which recently emerged as highly reconfigurable inanimate active particles capable of exhibiting emergent collective behaviors like schooling. Because of a chiral nematic liquid crystal’s natural tendency to twist and its facile response to electric fields and light, it serves as a testbed for dynamic control of skyrmions and other active particles. Using ambient-intensity unstructured light, we demonstrate large-scale multifaceted reconfigurations and unjamming of collective skyrmion motions powered by oscillating electric fields and guided by optically-induced obstacles and patterned illumination.

中文翻译：

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活跃天体的光学富集和引导动力学

光提供了控制材料物理行为的有力手段，但很少用于驱动和引导活性物质系统。我们展示了被称为“ skyrmions”的液晶拓扑孤子的光学控制，该孤子最近以高度可重构的无生命活性粒子出现，能够表现出像学校一样的集体行为。由于手性向列液晶的自然扭曲趋势及其对电场和光的轻松响应，它可以用作动态控制天体离子和其他活性粒子的试验台。使用环境强度的非结构化光，我们演示了大规模的多面重新配置，以及由振荡电场驱动并受光诱导的障碍物和图案化照明引导的集体天体运动的干扰。