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arXiv · 0902.2650

Relaxation of a Colloidal Particle into a Nonequilibrium Steady State

Valentin Blickle·Jakob Mehl·Clemens Bechinger
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Abstract

We study the relaxation of a single colloidal sphere which is periodically driven between two nonequilibrium steady states. Experimentally, this is achieved by driving the particle along a toroidal trap imposed by scanned optical tweezers. We find that the relaxation time after which the probability distributions have been relaxed is identical to that obtained by a steady state measurement. In quantitative agreement with theoretical calculations the relaxation time strongly increases when driving the system further away from thermal equilibrium.

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Valentin Blickle, Jakob Mehl, Clemens Bechinger. 2009-02-16. Relaxation of a Colloidal Particle into a Nonequilibrium Steady State. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.79.060104

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