Anisotropic memory effects in confined colloidal diffusion

TL;DR

This study investigates how hydrodynamic memory effects influence the anisotropic diffusion of a colloidal sphere near a wall, revealing a crossover in velocity autocorrelation decay and asymmetric diffusion behavior due to confinement.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of hydrodynamic memory effects on confined colloidal diffusion, highlighting the anisotropic and time-dependent nature of the phenomenon near surfaces.

Findings

Crossover from $t^{-3/2}$ to $t^{-5/2}$ decay in autocorrelation functions

Identification of anisotropic diffusion coefficients near a wall

Quantification of confinement effects on hydrodynamic memory

Abstract

The motion of an optically trapped sphere constrained by the vicinity of a wall is investigated at times where hydrodynamic memory is significant. First, we quantify, in bulk, the influence of confinement arising from the trapping potential on the sphere's velocity autocorrelation function $C(t)$. Next, we study the splitting of $C(t)$ into $C_\parallel(t)$ and $C_\perp(t)$, when the sphere is approached towards a surface. Thereby, we monitor the crossover from a slow $t^{-3/2}$ long-time tail, away from the wall, to a faster $t^{-5/2}$ decay, due to the subtle interplay between hydrodynamic backflow and wall effects. Finally, we discuss the resulting asymmetric time-dependent diffusion coefficients.