We study the designing principles of the simplest colloidal propeller, an architecture built from four identical spheres that can couple translation with rotation to produce controlled drift motion. By considering superparamagnetic beads, we show that the simultaneous action of a magnetic field and a shear flow leads to the migration of the cluster in the vorticity direction. We investigate the dependence of the migration velocity on the geometrical parameters of the cluster and find that significant cluster separation can be achieved under the typical operation conditions of microfluidic devices.

• Received 29 March 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.82.060401