Influence of noise on force measurements
Date
2010-04
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
Co-Advisor
Co-Supervisor
Instructor
Source Title
Physical Review Letters
Print ISSN
0031-9007
Electronic ISSN
1079-7114
Publisher
The American Physical Society
Volume
104
Issue
17
Pages
1 - 4
Language
English
Type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Series
Abstract
We demonstrate how the ineluctable presence of thermal noise alters the measurement of forces acting on microscopic and nanoscopic objects. We quantify this effect exemplarily for a Brownian particle near a wall subjected to gravitational and electrostatic forces. Our results demonstrate that the forcemeasurement process is prone to artifacts if the noise is not correctly taken into account.