  Run-and-tumble (RNT) motion is a prominent locomotion strategy employed by
many living microorganisms. It is characterized by straight swimming intervals
(runs), which are interrupted by sudden reorientation events (tumbles). In
contrast, directional changes of synthetic microswimmers (active particles,
APs) are caused by rotational diffusion, which is superimposed with their
translational motion and thus leads to rather continuous and slow particle
reorientations. Here we demonstrate that active particles can also perform a
swimming motion where translational and orientational changes are disentangled,
similar to RNT. In our system, such motion is realized by a viscoelastic
solvent and a periodic modulation of the self-propulsion velocity.
Experimentally, this is achieved using light-activated Janus colloids, which
are illuminated by a time-dependent laser field. We observe a strong
enhancement of the effective translational and rotational motion when the
modulation time is comparable to the relaxation time of the viscoelastic fluid.
Our findings are explained by the relaxation of the elastic stress, which
builds up during the self-propulsion, and is suddenly released when the
activity is turned off. In addition to a better understanding of active motion
in viscoelastic surroundings, our results may suggest novel steering strategies
for synthetic microswimmers in complex environments.
