Related papers: Superlubric Brownian Motor
Biological machines harness targeted deformations that can be actuated by Brownian fluctuations. However, while synthetic micromachines can similarly leverage targeted deformations they are too stiff to be driven by thermal fluctuations and…
Slender bodies capable of spontaneous motion in the absence of external actuation in an otherwise quiescent fluid are common in biological, physical and technological contexts. The interplay between the spontaneous fluid flow, Brownian…
Recently, a thermal Brownian motor was introduced [Van den Broeck, Kawai and Meurs, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2004)], for which an exact microscopic analysis is possible. The purpose of this paper is to review some further properties of this…
Brownian motion in confinement and at interfaces is a canonical situation, encountered from fundamental biophysics to nanoscale engineering. Using the Lorenz-Mie framework, we optically record the thermally-induced tridimensional…
Nanomechanical photonic metamaterials provide a wealth of active switching, nonlinear and enhanced light-matter interaction functionalities by coupling optically and mechanically resonant subsystems. Thermal (Brownian) motion of the…
We discuss an autonomous motor based on a Brownian particle driven from thermal equilibrium by periodic in time variation of the internal potential through which the particle interacts with molecules of the surrounding thermal bath. We…
Nanomechanical devices can operate at much higher speeds than their macroscopic analogues, due to low inertia. For example, peak speeds >100m/s have been predicted for carbon nanotube devices. This stimulates our interest in the…
We define and study in detail \emph{utraslow scaled Brownian motion (USBM)\/} characterised by a time dependent diffusion coefficient of the form $D(t)\simeq 1/t$. For unconfined motion the mean squared displacement (MSD) of USBM exhibits…
A colloidal particle embedded in a fluid can be used as a microscopic heat engine by means of a sequence of cyclic transformations imposed by an optical trap. We investigate a model for the operation of such kind of Brownian engines when…
Nanogenerators promise self-powered sensors and devices for extensive applications in internet of things, sensor networks, big data, personal healthcare systems, artificial intelligence, et al. However, low electric current densities and…
Self-superlubricity is a highly anticipated phenomenon where certain solid pairs in contact, without lubricant, exhibit zero wear and virtually null static friction and coefficient of friction (CoF). We present the first experimental…
Discontinuous shear-thickening in dense suspensions naturally emerges from the activation of frictional forces by shear flow in non-Brownian systems close to jamming. Yet, this physical picture is incomplete as most experiments study soft…
Near-boundary Brownian motion is a classic hydrodynamic problem of great importance in a variety of fields, from biophysics to micro-/nanofluidics. However, due to challenges in experimental measurements of near-boundary dynamics, the…
In this study, we employed lateral force microscopy, a specialized technique within atomic force microscopy, to explore the nanoscale frictional properties of 2D SnSe and SnSe$_2$ layers, and we compared these findings with graphene, a…
Structural superlubricity in van der Waals layered systems holds immense promise for diverse nanoscale contacts devices and energy-efficient applications. While all-direction structural superlubricity has been widely investigated, the…
We study the response of an adsorbed monolayer on a disordered substrate under a driving force using Brownian molecular-dynamics simulation. We find that the sharp longitudinal and transverse depinning transitions with hysteresis still…
We study the Brownian dynamics of hard spheres under spatially inhomogeneous shear, using event-driven Brownian dynamics simulations and power functional theory. We examine density and current profiles both for steady states and for the…
Surface and interfacial energies play important roles in a number of instability phenomena in liquids and soft matters, but are rare to play a similar role in solids. Here we report a new type of mechanical instabilities that are controlled…
Confined motions in complex environments are ubiquitous in microbiology. These situations invariably involve the intricate coupling between fluid flow, soft boundaries, surface forces and fluctuations. In the present study, such a coupling…
Observation of the Brownian motion of a small probe interacting with its environment is one of the main strategies to characterize soft matter. Essentially two counteracting forces govern the motion of the Brownian particle. First, the…