About project B5:
The motion of tracer particles provides insights into the local properties of complex matter with exceptional spatial and temporal resolution. Using tailor-made core-shell colloidal probes, especially of ellipsoidal shape, together with optical tweezing, and combined with molecular dynamics simulations and transport theory, the experimental and theoretical foundations for using anisotropic probes shall be laid in order to establish ‘orientational microrheology’ as a technique to determine local anisotropic material properties. The rotational motion of non-spherical tracers offers unique access to directional correlations, and strong external forces and torques test plastic deformations in the host.