Programming Interactions in Magnetic Handshake Materials

TL;DR

This paper introduces design rules for creating magnetic dipole patterns to enable programmable self-assembly, demonstrating high-yield assembly through simulations and experiments, and showing potential for extensive building blocks with current printing tech.

Contribution

It provides a systematic approach to designing magnetic interactions for programmable assembly, expanding the possibilities for self-assembling materials.

Findings

Super linear scaling of independent building blocks with printed domains

High yield assembly demonstrated in experiments and simulations

Potential for hundreds of building blocks with current printing technology

Abstract

The ability to rapidly manufacture building blocks with specific binding interactions is a key aspect of programmable assembly. Recent developments in DNA nanotechnology and colloidal particle synthesis have significantly advanced our ability to create particle sets with programmable interactions, based on DNA or shape complementarity. The increasing miniaturization underlying magnetic storage offers a new path for engineering programmable components for self assembly, by printing magnetic dipole patterns on substrates using nanotechnology. How to efficiently design dipole patterns for programmable assembly remains an open question as the design space is combinatorially large. Here, we present design rules for programming these magnetic interactions. By optimizing the structure of the dipole pattern, we demonstrate that the number of independent building blocks scales super linearly with the number of printed domains. We test these design rules using computational simulations of self assembled blocks, and experimental realizations of the blocks at the mm scale, demonstrating that the designed blocks give high yield assembly. In addition, our design rules indicate that with current printing technology, micron sized magnetic panels could easily achieve hundreds of different building blocks.