Helical opto-thermoviscous flows drive out-of-plane rotation and particle spinning in a highly viscous micro-environment

Fan Nan; Weida Liao; Adrián Puerta; Josephine Spiegelberg; Elena Erben; Ralf Mikut; Stephan Allgeier; Martin Wegener; Eric Lauga; Moritz Kreysing

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02303-8

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Helical opto-thermoviscous flows drive out-of-plane rotation and particle spinning in a highly viscous micro-environment

Original Articles

- Helical opto-thermoviscous flows drive out-of-plane rotation and particle spinning in a highly viscous micro-environment
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 8, Pages: 2585-2597(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Institute of Biological and Chemical Systems-FMS, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen 76344, Germany
  2.Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK
  3.Institute of Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen 76344, Germany
  4.Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen 76344, Germany
  5.Institute of Applied Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe 76131, Germany
  6.Present address: Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
- Author bio：
  
  Fan Nan (fan.nan@kit.edu)
  Moritz Kreysing (moritz.kreysing@kit.edu)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02303-8
  CLC：
- Received：09 December 2025，
  
  Revised：2026-03-28，
  
  Accepted：09 April 2026，
  
  Online First：11 May 2026，
  
  Published：31 August 2026
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Nan, F. et al. Helical opto-thermoviscous flows drive out-of-plane rotation and particle spinning in a highly viscous micro-environment. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2585-2597 (2026).
DOI：

Nan, F. et al. Helical opto-thermoviscous flows drive out-of-plane rotation and particle spinning in a highly viscous micro-environment. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 2585-2597 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02303-8.

摘要

Abstract

Contact-free and object-agnostic three-dimensional (3D) rotation remains a challenge at both the micro and nanoscale

with broad relevance to advanced imaging

biology

microrobotics

and materials science. Specifically

precise 3D rotation is desirable in diffusion-suppressing environments

where conventional micromanipulation methods fail. Here we introduce an opto-thermoviscous strategy that scans a focused laser spot within a two-dimensional plane to robustly generate 3D helical thermoviscous flows (TVFs) within highly viscous media. We further report on the discovery of opto-hydrodynamic focusing that converges a spiral motion to a defined particle height. By exploiting symmetry relations

we use rational design to decouple out-of-plane rotation from lateral displacements

leading to stable spinning with positional fluctuations below 200 nm

and demonstrate compatibility with a broad range of microstructures

from nano-printed tiles to stained biological cells

and even perfectly round homogenous spheres. Finally

leveraging the kinematic nature of thermoviscous manipulations

we demonstrate how stepwise rotation

alternated with 3D volumetric microscopy

can be combined with established multi-view image fusion strategies to increase resolution in biological imaging. Conceptually

this elevates TVFs from planar transport to symmetry-engineered volumetric actuation

delivering robust

material-agnostic

out-of-plane rotational control and sheathless opto-hydrodynamic focusing for all-optical micromanipulations and augmented microscopy.

关键词

Keywords

references

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