Energy transfer between colloids via critical interactions

Abstract

We report the observation of a temperature-controlled synchronization of two Brownian-particles in a binary mixture close to the critical point of the demixing transition. The two beads are trapped by two optical tweezers whose distance is periodically modulated. We notice that the motion synchronization of the two beads appears when the critical temperature is approached. In contrast, when the fluid is far from its critical temperature, the displacements of the two beads are uncorrelated. Small changes in temperature can radically change the global dynamics of the system. We show that the synchronisation is induced by the critical Casimir forces. Finally, we present the measure of the energy transfers inside the system produced by the critical interaction.

8 pages, 7 figures

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• Inducing oscillations of trapped particles in a near-critical Gaussian field
• Motile bacteria in a critical fluid mixture
• Effective Pair Interaction of Patchy Particles in Critical Fluids
• Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Confined Systems
• Unbinding transition of probes in single-file systems
• Laser-induced heating for the experimental study of critical Casimir forces with optical trapping
• Recoil of a driven tracer in a correlated medium
• Nonequilibrium relaxation of a trapped particle in a near-critical Gaussian field
• Experimental evidence for strong emergent correlations between particles in a switching trap