Recent Advances in Manipulation of Micro- and Nano-objects with Magnetic Fields at Small Scales

Manipulation of micro- and nano-objects has been widely studied in the past two decades due to practical applications in various fields. Herein we emphasize that manipulation techniques using magnetic fields have shown to be highly promising for effective motion control of these objects at small scales. Starting from the fundamental analysis of magnetic forces and torques acting on objects under magnetic fields, we will focus on the more recent contribution of magnetic manipulation to the four typical applications in this review, including micro-mixing, trapping, colloidal assembly and object transport. How magnetic field can be applied for object manipulation and the physical principles underlying these manipulation processes are highlighted.