Related papers: Active Colloids in Harmonic Optical Potentials
Isolating neutral and charged particles from the environment is essential in precision experiments. For decades, this has been achieved by trapping ions with radio-frequency (rf) fields and neutral particles with optical fields. Recently,…
Active colloids are microscopic particles, which self-propel through viscous fluids by converting energy extracted from their environment into directed motion. We first explain how articial microswimmers move forward by generating…
Optical excitation of colloids can be harnessed to realize soft matter systems that are out of equilibrium. In this paper, we present our experimental studies on the dynamics of silica colloids in the vicinity of a silver nanowire…
We analyze the equations governing the evolution of distributions of the work and the heat exchanged with the environment by a manipulated stochastic system, by means of a compact and general derivation. We obtain explicit solutions for…
Inspired by recent experiments of cells accumulating on anisotropic substrates, we study a two-dimensional, compressible, isotropic, active fluid in the presence of anisotropic friction. We find that regions of anisotropic friction that are…
Active matter studies are increasingly geared towards the high-density or glassy limit. This is mainly inspired by the remarkable resemblance between active glassy materials and conventional passive glassy matter. Interestingly, within this…
We analyse the possibility of cooling ions with a single laser beam, due to the coupling between the three components of their motion induced by the Coulomb interaction. For this purpose, we numerically study the dynamics of ion clouds of…
We study the mobility of a charged colloidal particle in a constant homogeneous electric field by means of computer simulations. The simulation method combines a lattice Boltzmann scheme for the fluid with standard Langevin dynamics for the…
We synthesize colloidal particles with various anisotropic shapes and track their orientationally resolved Brownian trajectories using confocal microscopy. An analysis of appropriate short-time correlation functions provides direct access…
Non-invasive optical manipulation of particles has emerged as a powerful and versatile tool for biological study and nanotechnology. In particular, trapping and rotation of cells, cell nuclei and sub-micron particles enables unique…
Atoms trapped in the evanescent field around a nanofiber experience strong coupling to the light guided in the fiber mode. However, due to the intrinsically strong positional dependence of the coupling, thermal motion of the ensemble limits…
The nonequilibrium activity taking place in a living cell can be monitored with a tracer embedded in the medium. While microrheology experiments based on optical manipulation of such probes have become increasingly standard, we put forward…
Particle-based simulations are performed to study the post-relaxation dynamics of functionalized (patchy) colloids adsorbed on an attractive substrate. Kinetically arrested structures that depend on the number of adsorbed particles and the…
Colloids dispersed in nematic liquid crystals form topological composites in which colloid-associated defects mediate interactions while adhering to fundamental topological constraints. Better realising the promise of such materials…
The Landau-de Gennes free energy is used to study theoretically the interaction of parallel cylindrical colloidal particles trapped at a nematic-isotropic interface. We find that the effective interaction potential is non-monotonic. The…
Active particles exhibit self-propulsion, leading to transport behavior that differs fundamentally from passive Brownian motion. In confined or structured domains, activity strongly influence escape probabilities and first-passage behavior.…
Our object is to formulate and analyze a physically plausible and mathematically sound model to better understand the phenomenon of clumping in colloid dispersions. Our model is stochastic but rigorously derived from a deterministic setup…
The implications of soft `patchy' interactions on the orientational disorder-order transition of strongly elongated colloidal rods and flat disks is studied within a simple Onsager-van der Waals density functional theory. The theory…
We have conceived, built, and operated a cryogenic Penning trap with an electrically conducting yet optically transparent solid electrode. The trap, dedicated to spectroscopy and imaging of confined particles under large solid angles is of…
We consider the system of two interacting atoms confined in axially symmetric harmonic trap. Within the pseudopotential approximation, we solve the Schroedinger equation exactly, discussing the limits of quasi-one and quasi-two-dimensional…