Characterization of torque-spectroscopy techniques for probing rotary nanomotors

This thesis describes developments in the characterization of torque-spectroscopy techniques, in particular magnetic and optical tweezers, with the goal of employing these techniques in studies on the bacterial flagellar motor of Escherichia coli.

Biological Magnetometry: Torque on Superparamagnetic Beads in Magnetic Fields

Superparamagnetic beads are widely used in biochemistry and single-molecule biophysics, but the nature of the anisotropy that enables the application of torques remains controversial. To quantitatively investigate the torques experienced by superparamagnetic particles, we use a biological motor to rotate beads in a magnetic field and demonstrate...