Synchronous versus asynchronous transport of a paramagnetic particle in a modulated ratchet potential

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.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, published in Europhysics Letters (EPL