Designing nanoparticle self-propulsion With nonequilibrium Casimir physics

This work presents an analysis of thermal self-propulsion behavior in nanoparticles using several recent advancements in the field of nonequilibrium Casimir physics. We compute fundamental limits on the thermal power emission and thermal self-propulsion force that is attainable for particles of a given size. The limits that we obtain are valid for photon emission at a single frequency; however, they allow us to estimate the maximum total power emission and self-propulsion force that we can expect to achieve for a wide range of materials that are commonly used in nanoparticle manufacturing. We provide a detailed description of the role that particle temperature, material composition, and geometry play in generating thermal self-propulsion forces and use this information to develop a general procedure for designing efficient self-propulsion behavior using the SCUFF-EM software package [24]. Finally, we present the results of our exploratory design study amongst silicon dioxide nanoparticles and identify three candidates that exhibit strong self-propulsion.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Tomlinson, Eric D

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Steven G. Johnson and Robert L. Jaffe.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100331

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/100331