| Remote manipulation of fluid-borne magnetic particles on a surface is useful to probe, assemble, and sort microscale and nanoscale objects. By patterning magnetic structures in shapes designed to exploit local heterogeneities in thin film magnetization, we have demonstrated effective trapping mechanisms for superparamagnetic micro- and nanoparticles. The features necessary for trapping are shown to arise at domain walls or indentations in microscale and smaller magnetic wires, at the periphery of magnetized disks, and at corners of magnetized triangles.;Weak (<150 Oe) in- and out-of-plane external magnetic fields modify the energy landscape of the trapped particles, allowing for the objects to be remotely maneuvered along selected routes across the surface. The mechanism is multiplexed, allowing for simultaneous manipulation of many trapped particles, and their motion is directed using a handheld user interface. Particles are able to be transported over hundreds of micrometers with velocities of upwards of 200 microm/s and average forces of up to hundreds of picoNewtons.;The magnetic fields, their spatial distribution, and resulting forces are estimated by modeling magnetization of the patterned structures using micromagnetic simulation or by approximating the traps as point sources of fields. The quality of these models and their relevance for describing particle manipulation under the experimental conditions is discussed.;The applicability of these techniques is demonstrated for various biological, biomolecular, and nanoscale systems. Binding of magnetic particles to cells allows for guided cell transport. Composite micelle nanostructures, only tens of nm across, are simultaneously trapped and maneuvered magnetically and tracked fluorescently, despite their small size. The implications for use of this technology in lab-on-chip devices are discussed. |
