ABSTRACT
The motion of an optically trapped sphere constrained by the vicinity of a wall is investigated at times where hydrodynamic memory is significant. First, we quantify, in bulk, the influence of confinement arising from the trapping potential on the sphere's velocity autocorrelation function C(t). Next, we study the splitting of C(t) into C_{parallel}(t) and C_{perpendicular}(t), when the sphere is approached towards a surface. Thereby, we monitor the crossover from a slow t{-3/2} long-time tail, away from the wall, to a faster t{-5/2} decay, due to the subtle interplay between hydrodynamic backflow and wall effects. Finally, we discuss the resulting asymmetric time-dependent diffusion coefficients.
Subject(s)
Colloids/chemistry , Models, Chemical , Anisotropy , Diffusion , Microfluidic Analytical TechniquesABSTRACT
The thermal expansion of a fluid combined with a temperature-dependent viscosity introduces nonlinearities in the Navier-Stokes equations unrelated to the convective momentum current. The couplings generate the possibility for net fluid flow at the microscale controlled by external heating. This novel thermomechanical effect is investigated for a thin fluid chamber by a numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations and analytically by a perturbation expansion. A demonstration experiment confirms the basic mechanism and quantitatively validates our theoretical analysis.
