Recent trends in non-reactive light driven Micro/-nano propellers and rotors

The potential applications of micro/nano propellers in biomedical and environmental fields have accelerated the pace of research outcomes in these fields. Early efforts were focused on developing self-propellers rather than external field induced propellers. However, in recent time, the development of light-induced propellers is gaining more consideration over self-propellers due to the advancement of plasmonic nanostructures, metamaterials, advanced fabrication techniques, and related light material interaction research. Diverse plasmonic nanostructure design, metamaterial/ meta surface design, and optical fine tuning of micro and nanoscopic objects have aided light mediated micro/-nano propeller research in many ways. Despite being a relatively younger research field, a significant development has already been carried out. In the present review, we focus on the design, fabrication, light mediated propulsion protocol, and propulsion dynamics of non-reactive light-induced micro/-nano propellers. The review portrays the chronological developments of light induced micro/-nano propellers that have led to the overlap of plasmonics, micro/-nano fabrication, and micro/nano propeller design research. We explore the most advanced literature that encompass light mediated translational and rotational motion of micro/-nanoscopic objects. Two major distinguishable topics of discussion are, (i) design and development of micro/nano structure that can generate ballistic/translational motion in the presence of linearly polarized or unpolarized light, (ii) design of micro/nano structure that develops torques upon linear polarized light irradiation or usage of circularly polarized light to create torque to micro/-nanoscopic bodies. In relevance to the topic of the review, it also enumerates the recent advancements in photo-active colloidal motions and plasmonic thermophoresis. Furthermore, the review is structured in a manner so that one can realize different optical principles that can create motion to micro/-nano bodies, chronological research trends in this field, the future of this research field, and challenging applications.