Experimental Characterization of Thermal Fluctuations in a Tethered Micron-Scale Structure: Initial Steps Toward Diffusion-Based Signaling

This paper reports initial experimental characterization of thermally driven fluctuations in a tethered micron-scale structure using optical microscopy and long-duration centroid tracking. A 10-minute recording of an anchored fibrous shard in water was analyzed to extract diffusion parameters, validate Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (OU) dynamics, estimate effective stiffness, and assess signal-to-noise ratio relative to tracking noise. The measured variance and relaxation time yield an effective diffusion coefficient on the order of 10−15 m2/s, consistent with strongly confined overdamped motion rather than free diffusion. The results confirm statistically resolvable thermal bending fluctuations and provide a foundation for future experiments exploring diffusion-driven information transfer in soft micro-structures.