Brownian motion: absolute negative particle mobility |
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Authors: | Ros Alexandra Eichhorn Ralf Regtmeier Jan Duong Thanh Tu Reimann Peter Anselmetti Dario |
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Affiliation: | Experimental Biophysics & Applied Nanosciences, Bielefeld University, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany. dra.ros@physik.uni-bielefeld.de |
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Abstract: | Noise effects in technological applications, far from being a nuisance, can be exploited with advantage - for example, unavoidable thermal fluctuations have found application in the transport and sorting of colloidal particles and biomolecules. Here we use a microfluidic system to demonstrate a paradoxical migration mechanism in which particles always move in a direction opposite to the net acting force ('absolute negative mobility') as a result of an interplay between thermal noise, a periodic and symmetric microstructure, and a biased alternating-current electric field. This counterintuitive phenomenon could be used for bioanalytical purposes, for example in the separation and fractionation of colloids, biological molecules and cells. |
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