Noise-to-signal transition of a Brownian particle in the cubic potential: II. optical trapping geometry

The noise-to-signal transitions belong to an exciting  group of processes in physics. In Filip and Zemánek (2016, J. Opt. 18 065401) we theoretically analyse the stochastic noise-to-signal transition of overdamped Brownian motion of a particle in the cubic potential. In this part, we propose a feasible experimental setup for a proof-of-principle experiment that uses methods of optical trapping in shaped laser beams which provide cubic and quadratic potentials. Theoretical estimates and results from the numerical simulations indicate that the noise-to-signal transition can be observed under realistic experimental conditions. (paper)