Abstract
We study the nondiffusive Brownian motion of both rigid and deformable mesoscopic particles by cross-correlated dynamic light scattering with microsecond temporal resolution. Whereas rigid particles show the classical long-time tail prediction, the transition to diffusive motion of deformable particles presents a striking behavior not explained by the existing hydrodynamic treatments. This observation can be interpreted in terms of a damped oscillatory deformational motion on time scales of the order of the Brownian time. Finally, we show that the nondiffusive Brownian motion depends on the specific flexibility of the particles.
- Received 22 December 2008
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.80.021403
©2009 American Physical Society