Alexander Rohrbach: "Hydrodynamic and molecular forces induced and measured by optical potentials"

Alexander Rohrbach
Dep. of Microsystems Engineering, University of Freiburg

Hydrodynamic and molecular forces induced and measured by optical potentials

The generation of nearly arbitrary and changeable 3D potential landscapes enables plenty of new experiments and theories in soft matter physics. In addition, it is possible latterly to measure the fluctuations of various degrees of freedom of nano-particles in soft matter environments on a µs time scale with a precision of a few nanometers or micro-rad. This gives us the possibility to induce and investigate interaction processes between particles or inside small self-organizing biological nano-systems. In this talk I will present how hydrodynamic interactions of particles in an effective optical potential reveal unexpected cross-correlations, how the nano-mechanics of the world's smallest cell trapped in a light tube can be measured and modelled and, if time is left, how molecular motors might exert forces in the periphery of a cell.