Abstract:
To address the limited stability of highly ordered structures and the unclear mechanisms underlying the reproducibility of structure formation in magnetic micro-rotor systems at air–liquid interfaces, a systematic comparative study was conducted on the structural evolution of magnetic micro-rotor clusters driven by rotating and oscillating magnetic fields under two-dimensional uniform magnetic fields. Nickel-coated (Ni) micro-rotors with a diameter of approximately 300 μm were employed. By varying the driving frequency and particle area density, and combining high-speed microscopic imaging with hexagonal order parameter analysis, the interfacial flow organization and the mechanisms of ordered structure formation under the two driving modes were quantitatively compared. The results show that under a rotating magnetic field, hexagonally ordered structures emerge only within a limited parameter window, and their stability decreases markedly with increasing area density. In contrast, the oscillating magnetic field suppresses global cluster migration through periodic torque reversal, enabling the formation of stable hexagonal arrangements over a much broader parameter range, with an approximately 16% increase in the hexagonal order parameter. Local perturbation experiments reveal that the formed structures can spontaneously recover within approximately 2–3 s. Under cyclic driving conditions, the structure formation time is reduced by about 75%, indicating robust structural memory effects. This work provides new experimental strategies and physical insights for the ordered assembly of interfacial particle systems.