Hydrodynamic measurement of Brownian particles at a liquid-solid interface by low-coherence dynamic light scattering

The hydrodynamics of Brownian particles close to a wall is investigated using low-coherence dynamic light scattering. The diffusion coefficient of the particles in a suspension is measured as a function of distance from the wall. A sudden reduction in the diffusion coefficient near the interface is clearly observed using this method. The theoretically predicted wall-drag effect is experimentally confirmed when the influence of the spatial resolution due to the finite coherence length of the light source is accounted for. The space-dependent dynamics of Brownian particles under the wall-drag effect is obtained for the first time using our spatially resolved dynamic light scattering technique.