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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 97 » Issue 21
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 210603 (2006) [4 pages]

Torque Detection using Brownian Fluctuations

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Giovanni Volpe1 and Dmitri Petrov1,2,*
1ICFO - Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Mediterranean Technology Park, 08860, Castelldefels (Barcelona), Spain
2ICREA - Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, 08010, Barcelona, Spain

Received 27 July 2006; published 22 November 2006

See accompanying Physics Focus

We report the statistical analysis of the movement of a submicron particle confined in a harmonic potential in the presence of a torque. The absolute value of the torque can be found from the auto- and cross-correlation functions of the particle’s coordinates. We experimentally prove this analysis by detecting the torque produced onto an optically trapped particle by an optical beam with orbital angular momentum.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.210603
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.210603
PACS:
05.40.Jc, 07.10.Pz, 87.80.Cc

*Electronic address: Dmitri.Petrov@icfo.es

 
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