Critical Casimir forces steered by patterned substrates

Abstract

Among the various kinds of effective forces in soft matter, the spatial range and the direction of the so-called critical Casimir force—which is generated by the enhanced thermal fluctuations close to a continuous phase transition—can be controlled and reversibly modified to an uncommonly large extent. In particular, minute temperature changes of the fluid solvent which provides the nearcritical thermal fluctuations lead to a significant change of the range and strength of the effective interaction among the solute particles. This feature allows one to control, e.g., the aggregation of colloidal dispersions or the spatial distribution of colloids in the presence of chemically or topographically patterned substrates. The spatial direction of the effective force acting on a solute particle depends only on the surface properties of the immersed particles and can be spatially modulated by suitably patterned surfaces. These critical Casimir forces are largely independent of the specific materials properties of both the solvent and the confining surfaces. This characteristic universality of critical phenomena allows systematic and quantitative theoretical studies of the critical Casimir forces in terms of suitable representative and simplified models. Here we highlight recent theoretical and experimental advances concerning critical Casimir forces with a particular emphasis on the numerous possibilities of controlling these forces by patterned substrates.