Abstract.
We report on a paradoxical migration mechanism in a microstructured lab-on-a-chip environment. The phenomenon is based on a subtle interplay between Brownian motion (thermal noise), a periodic and symmetric microstructure, and a biased AC electric field. The resulting non-linear dynamics far from thermal equilibrium gives rise to absolute negative mobility, i.e. a migrational transport, which is – both for negative and positive bias – always opposite to the net acting force, in good agreement between experiment and theory.
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Eichhorn, R., Ros, A., Regtmeier, J. et al. Paradoxical Brownian motion in a microfluidic device: Absolute negative mobility. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 143, 159–164 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2007-00083-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2007-00083-1