Designing Self-Limiting Assembly Using Magnetically Interacting Micro-Panels

Magnetic handshake materials is a newly developed materials platform for programmable self-assembly. This platform enables highly specific interactions to be easily printed in complex structures and arrangements, revealing a vast potential design space for micron-scale magnetic structures and machines. Since the design space for building block design is so large, having theoretical and computational approaches is crucial to the rapid design of materials with desired structures and functions. In this talk, we introduce a theory-computation-experiment workflow to design building blocks for targeted assembly behaviors. Of particular interest are 2-dimensional square panels. These constitute a simple building block that is capable of self-assembly into various structures, such as larger 2-by-2 squares, depending on the arrangement of constituent dipoles. Firstly, we validate the yield prediction from a statistical mechanics informed theoretical model by running molecular dynamics simulations. Secondly, we show how to use the theoretical model to design interactions for hierarchical assembly into structures of increasing size. Lastly, we demonstrate the possibilities of translating our designs into experimental realizations.