Rectification and confinement of photokinetic bacteria in an optical feedback loop

Helena Massana-Cid, Claudio Maggi, Giacomo Frangipane and Roberto Di Leonardo ()
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Helena Massana-Cid: Sapienza Università di Roma
Claudio Maggi: Sapienza Università di Roma
Giacomo Frangipane: Sapienza Università di Roma
Roberto Di Leonardo: Sapienza Università di Roma

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Active particles can self-propel by exploiting locally available energy resources. When powered by light, these resources can be distributed with high resolution allowing spatio-temporal modulation of motility. Here we show that the random walks of light-driven bacteria are rectified when they swim in a structured light field that is obtained by a simple geometric transformation of a previous system snapshot. The obtained currents achieve an optimal value that we establish by general theoretical arguments. This optical feedback is used to gather and confine bacteria in high-density and high-activity regions that can be dynamically relocated and reconfigured. Moving away from the boundaries of these optically confined states, the density decays to zero in a few tens of micrometers, exhibiting steep exponential tails that suppress cell escape and ensure long-term stability. Our method is general and scalable, providing a versatile tool to produce localized and tunable active baths for microengineering applications and systematic studies of non-equilibrium phenomena in active systems.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30201-1

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