100
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    16
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Artificial Brownian motors: Controlling transport on the nanoscale

      Preprint
      ,

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          In systems possessing spatial or dynamical symmetry breaking, Brownian motion combined with symmetric external input signals, deterministic or random, alike, can assist directed motion of particles at the submicron scales. In such cases, one speaks of "Brownian motors". In this review the constructive role of Brownian motion is exemplified for various one-dimensional setups, mostly inspired by the cell molecular machinery: working principles and characteristics of stylized devices are discussed to show how fluctuations, either thermal or extrinsic, can be used to control diffusive particle transport. Recent experimental demonstrations of this concept are reviewed with particular attention to transport in artificial nanopores and optical traps, where single particle currents have been first measured. Much emphasis is given to two- and three-dimensional devices containing many interacting particles of one or more species; for this class of artificial motors, noise rectification results also from the interplay of particle Brownian motion and geometric constraints. Recently, selective control and optimization of the transport of interacting colloidal particles and magnetic vortices have been successfully achieved, thus leading to the new generation of microfluidic and superconducting devices presented hereby. Another area with promising potential for realization of artificial Brownian motors are microfluidic or granular set-ups.....

          Related collections

          Most cited references304

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          A revolution in optical manipulation.

          Optical tweezers use the forces exerted by a strongly focused beam of light to trap and move objects ranging in size from tens of nanometres to tens of micrometres. Since their introduction in 1986, the optical tweezer has become an important tool for research in the fields of biology, physical chemistry and soft condensed matter physics. Recent advances promise to take optical tweezers out of the laboratory and into the mainstream of manufacturing and diagnostics; they may even become consumer products. The next generation of single-beam optical traps offers revolutionary new opportunities for fundamental and applied research.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Article: not found

            Stochastic resonance

              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: not found
              • Article: not found

              Microfluidics: Fluid physics at the nanoliter scale

                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                08 July 2008
                2008-09-24
                Article
                10.1103/RevModPhys.81.387
                0807.1283
                92a8ec6a-70d9-4237-8bc4-de97803c04cb

                http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

                History
                Custom metadata
                Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 387-442 (2009)
                57 pages, 39 figures; submitted to Reviews Modern Physics, revised version
                cond-mat.stat-mech

                Comments

                Comment on this article