2004/11/29 by Sang-Hyuk Lee, Kosta Ladavac, Marco Polin +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.94.110601
4 pages, 2 figures, submitted for publication in Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2004/11/29 · openalex publication_date 2005/03/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
We demonstrate that a cycle of three holographic optical trapping patterns can implement a thermal ratchet for diffusing colloidal spheres and that the ratchet-driven transport displays flux reversal as a function of the cycle frequency and the intertrap separation. Unlike previously described ratchet models, the approach we describe involves three equivalent states, each of which is locally and globally spatially symmetric, with spatiotemporal symmetry being broken by the sequence of states.