Rotational diffusion of colloidal microspheres near flat walls

Abstract

Recently, colloids with an off-center fluorescent core and homogeneous composition have been developed to measure the rotational diffusivity of microparticles using 3D confocal microscopy in refractive index-matched suspensions. Here, we show that the same particles may be imaged using a standard fluorescence microscope to yield their rotational diffusion coefficients. Trajectories of the off-center core may be combined with known expressions for the correlation decay of particle orientations to determine an effective rotational diffusivity. For sedimented particles, we also find the rotational diffusivity about axes perpendicular and parallel to the interface by adding some bright field illumination and simultaneously tracking both the core and the particle. Trajectories for particles of different sizes yield excellent agreement with hydrodynamic models of rotational diffusion near flat walls, taking the sedimentation–diffusion equilibrium into account. Finally, we explore the rotational diffusivity of particles in crowded two-dimensional monolayers, finding a different reduction of the rotational motion about the two axes depending on the colloidal microstructure.