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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 91 » Issue 26
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 260802 (2003) [4 pages]

Flexible Magnetic Filaments as Micromechanical Sensors

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C. Goubault
Laboratoire Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés, UMR 7612, ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France and Laboratoire Physico-Chimie Curie, Institut Curie, UMR 168, 26 Rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, France

P. Jop and M. Fermigier
Laboratoire Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, UMR 7636, ESPCI, 10 Rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France

J. Baudry, E. Bertrand, and J. Bibette
Laboratoire Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés, UMR 7612, ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France

Received 24 March 2003; revised 2 July 2003; published 30 December 2003

We propose a new micromechanical approach to probe bending rigidity at molecular scale. Long flexible filaments made of magnetic colloids and linkers are shown to adopt under magnetic field a hairpin configuration. Measuring the hairpin curvature as a function of the field intensity and the linker length from diffracted light allows us to deduce the linker bending rigidity κ. The technique is presented for two types of linkers: a spontaneously adsorbing polymer and a grafted biomolecular.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.260802
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.260802
PACS:
07.10.Cm, 07.10.Pz, 82.37.Rs
 
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