Tracking rotational diffusion of colloidal clusters

We describe a novel method of tracking the rotational motion of clusters of colloidal particles. Our method utilizes rigid body transformations to determine the rotations of a cluster and extends conventional proven particle tracking techniques in a simple way, thus facilitating the study of rotational dynamics in systems containing or composed of colloidal clusters. We test our method by measuring dynamical properties of simulated Brownian clusters under conditions relevant to microscopy experiments. We then use the technique to track and describe the motions of a real colloidal cluster imaged with confocal microscopy. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America