Brownian motion of boomerang colloidal particles

We investigate the Brownian motion of boomerang colloidal particles confined between two glass plates. Our experimental observations show that the mean displacements are biased towards the center of hydrodynamic stress (CoH), and that the mean-square displacements exhibit a crossover from short-time...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 111; no. 16; p. 160603
Main Authors Chakrabarty, Ayan, Konya, Andrew, Wang, Feng, Selinger, Jonathan V, Sun, Kai, Wei, Qi-Huo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 18.10.2013
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Summary:We investigate the Brownian motion of boomerang colloidal particles confined between two glass plates. Our experimental observations show that the mean displacements are biased towards the center of hydrodynamic stress (CoH), and that the mean-square displacements exhibit a crossover from short-time faster to long-time slower diffusion with the short-time diffusion coefficients dependent on the points used for tracking. A model based on Langevin theory elucidates that these behaviors are ascribed to the superposition of two diffusive modes: the ellipsoidal motion of the CoH and the rotational motion of the tracking point with respect to the CoH.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.111.160603