2018/06/29 by Alessandro Magazzù, Magazzù, Alessandro, Agnese Callegari +9
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Microfluidic and Capillary Electrophoresis Applications #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1806.11403
openalex publication_date 2018/06/29 · openalex created_date 2022/10/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Critical Casimir forces can play an important role for applications in\nnano-science and nanotechnology, owing to their piconewton strength, nanometric\naction range, fine tunability as a function of temperature, and exquisite\ndependence on the surface properties of the involved objects. Here, we\ninvestigate the effects of critical Casimir forces on the free dynamics of a\npair of colloidal particles dispersed in the bulk of a near-critical binary\nliquid solvent, using blinking optical tweezers. In particular we measure the\ntime evolution of the distance between the two colloids to determine their\nrelative diffusion and drift velocity. Furthermore, we show how critical\nCasimir forces change the dynamic properties of this two-colloid system by\nstudying the temperature dependence of the distribution of the so-called\nfirst-passage time, i.e., of the time necessary for the particles to reach for\nthe first time a certain separation, starting from an initially assigned one.\nThese data are in good agreement with theoretical results obtained from Monte\nCarlo simulations and Langevin dynamics.\n