Relaxation of a Colloidal Particle into a Nonequilibrium Steady State

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.

References in corpus (4)

• Stochastic thermodynamics: Principles and perspectives
• The Einstein relation generalized to non-equilibrium
• Large deviation function for entropy production in driven one-dimensional systems
• Characterizing Potentials by a Generalized Boltzmann Factor

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Experimental verification of a modified fluctuation-dissipation relation for a micron-sized particle in a non-equilibrium steady state
• Capturing self-propelled particles in a moving microwedge
• Experimental Accessibility of Generalized Fluctuation-Dissipation Relations for Nonequilibrium Steady States
• Fluctuations and response in a non-equilibrium micron-sized system
• Free energy of colloidal particles at the surface of sessile drops
• Relaxation to steady states of a binary liquid mixture around an optically heated colloid