Abstract
We developed an experimental technique which probes the dynamics of a single colloidal particle over many decades in time, with spatial resolution of a few nanometers. By scattering a focused laser beam from a particle observed in an optical microscope, we measure its fluctuations via the temporal autocorrelation function of the scattered intensity . This technique is demonstrated by applying it to a single Brownian particle in an optical trap of force constant . The decay times of , which are related to the particle position autocorrelation function, scale as , as expected from theory.
- Received 28 August 1996
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.154
©1997 American Physical Society