Magnetophoretic long jump of magnetic microparticles in an engineered magnetic stray field landscape for highly localized and large throughput on-chip fractionation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Huhnstock, Rico, Paetzold, Lukas, Kuswik, Piotr, Ehresmann, Arno
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Huhnstock, Rico
Paetzold, Lukas
Kuswik, Piotr
Ehresmann, Arno
author_facet Huhnstock, Rico
Paetzold, Lukas
Kuswik, Piotr
Ehresmann, Arno
contents A common issue faced by magnetic particle-based Lab-on-a-chip systems, e.g, for medical diagnostics, is the intrinsic fabrication-related polydispersity in particle sizes and magnetic properties. Therefore, to reduce this variation, it is prudent to integrate a pre-separation procedure for the particles into the overall workflow of the system. In this work, a concept for the controlled on-chip fractionation of micron-sized superparamagnetic beads (SPBs) is introduced, which is applicable for sorting magnetic particles according to their properties in a continuous operation mode. A specifically designed magnetic domain pattern is imprinted into an exchange-biased thin film system to generate a tailored magnetic stray field landscape (MFL), enabling lateral transport of SPBs when superposing the MFL with external magnetic field pulses. The domain pattern consists of parallel stripes with gradually increasing and decreasing width, resulting in a step-wise jumping motion of SPBs with increasing/decreasing jump distance. SPBs with different magnetophoretic mobilities, determined, among others, by the particle size and magnetic susceptibility, discontinue their lateral motion at different jump distances, i.e., different lateral positions on the substrate. Thorough analysis of the motion using optical microscopy and particle tracking revealed that an increasing stripe width not only leads to a larger jump distance but also to a lowered jump velocity. As a consequence, particles are spatially separated according to their magnetic and structural properties with a large throughput and time efficiency, as simultaneous sorting occurs for all particles present on the substrate using a constant sequence of short external field pulses.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_16189
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Magnetophoretic long jump of magnetic microparticles in an engineered magnetic stray field landscape for highly localized and large throughput on-chip fractionation
Huhnstock, Rico
Paetzold, Lukas
Kuswik, Piotr
Ehresmann, Arno
Applied Physics
A common issue faced by magnetic particle-based Lab-on-a-chip systems, e.g, for medical diagnostics, is the intrinsic fabrication-related polydispersity in particle sizes and magnetic properties. Therefore, to reduce this variation, it is prudent to integrate a pre-separation procedure for the particles into the overall workflow of the system. In this work, a concept for the controlled on-chip fractionation of micron-sized superparamagnetic beads (SPBs) is introduced, which is applicable for sorting magnetic particles according to their properties in a continuous operation mode. A specifically designed magnetic domain pattern is imprinted into an exchange-biased thin film system to generate a tailored magnetic stray field landscape (MFL), enabling lateral transport of SPBs when superposing the MFL with external magnetic field pulses. The domain pattern consists of parallel stripes with gradually increasing and decreasing width, resulting in a step-wise jumping motion of SPBs with increasing/decreasing jump distance. SPBs with different magnetophoretic mobilities, determined, among others, by the particle size and magnetic susceptibility, discontinue their lateral motion at different jump distances, i.e., different lateral positions on the substrate. Thorough analysis of the motion using optical microscopy and particle tracking revealed that an increasing stripe width not only leads to a larger jump distance but also to a lowered jump velocity. As a consequence, particles are spatially separated according to their magnetic and structural properties with a large throughput and time efficiency, as simultaneous sorting occurs for all particles present on the substrate using a constant sequence of short external field pulses.
title Magnetophoretic long jump of magnetic microparticles in an engineered magnetic stray field landscape for highly localized and large throughput on-chip fractionation
topic Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.16189