2013/11/09 by Clemence Devailly, Clémence Devailly, Justine Laurent +9
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Material Dynamics and Properties #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1311.2217
arxiv created 2013/11/09 · openalex publication_date 2013/11/09 · arxiv updated 2013/11/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A method to measure the viscosity of liquids at microscales is presented. It uses a thin glass fiber fixed on the tip of the cantilever of an extremely low noise Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), which accurately measures the cantilever deflection. When the fiber is dipped into the liquid the dissipation of the cantilever-fiber system increases. This dissipation, linked to the liquid viscosity, is computed from the power spectral density of the thermal fluctuations of the cantilever deflection. The high sensitivity of the AFM allows us to show the existence and to develop a model of the coupling between the dynamics of the fiber and that of the cantilever. This model accurately fits the experimental data. The advantages and draw-backs of the method are discussed