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Rolling, sliding, and trapping of driven particles in square obstacle lattices

Galor Geva1,2,3,*, Arin Escobar Ortiz1,2,3,*, Paula Magrinya1,2,3, Pablo Llombart1,2,3, Alfredo Alexander-Katz4, Laura R. Arriaga1,2,3,†, and Juan L. Aragones1,2,3,‡

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: laura.rodriguezarriaga@uam.es
  • ‡Contact author: juan.aragones@uam.es
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042035 – Published 14 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2f4p-2xy7

Abstract

Transport phenomena in complex and dynamic microscopic environments are fundamentally shaped by hydrodynamic interactions. In particular, microparticle transport in porous media is governed by the delicate interplay between particle-substrate friction and pressure forces. Here, we systematically investigate the motion of externally driven rotating magnetic microparticles near a substrate patterned with a square lattice of cylindrical obstacles, a model porous medium. Remarkably, we observe a reversal in the direction of particle translation as obstacle spacing decreases, highlighting a sensitive competition between shear-induced forward rolling and pressure-driven backward sliding due to flow-field symmetry breaking. These results demonstrate the crucial role of structured environments in determining microscale active particle transport, offering strategies for microfluidic design, targeted cargo delivery, and tunable active materials.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042035– Published 14 November, 2025
  • Received 29 May 2025
  • Accepted 9 September 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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