Synchronous vs. asynchronous transport of a paramagnetic particle in a modulated ratchet potential

¹ Department of Physics, Humboldt University of Berlin - Newtonstr. 15, D-12489 Berlin, Germany, EU
² Departament de Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Universitat de Barcelona - Av. Diagonal 647, 08028, Barcelona, Spain, EU
³ Institut de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia IN 2UB, Universitat de Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain, EU

^(a) straube@physik.hu-berlin.de
^(b) ptierno@ub.edu

Received: 22 May 2013
Accepted: 5 July 2013

Abstract

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study describing the dynamical regimes displayed by a paramagnetic colloidal particle externally driven above a stripe-patterned magnetic garnet film. A circularly polarized rotating magnetic field modulates the stray field of the garnet film and generates a translating periodic potential which induces particle motion. Increasing the driving frequency, we observe a transition from a phase-locked motion with constant speed to a sliding dynamics characterized by a lower speed due to the loss of synchronization with the traveling potential. We explain the experimental findings with an analytically tractable theoretical model and interpret the particle dynamics in the presence of thermal noise. The model is in good quantitative agreement with the experiments.