Subfemtonewton force fields measured with ergodic Brownian ensembles

We demonstrate that radiation pressure force fields can be measured and reconstructed with a resolution of 0.3 fN (at a 99.7% confidence level) using an ergodic ensemble of overdamped colloidal particles. The outstanding force resolution level is provided by the large size of the statistical ensemble built by recording all displacements from all diffusing particles, regardless of trajectory and time. This is only possible because the noise driving the particles is thermal, white, and stationary, so that the colloidal system is ergodic, as we carefully verify. Using an ergodic colloidal dispersion for performing ultrasensitive measurements of external forces is not limited to nonconservative optical force fields. Our experiments therefore give way to interesting opportunities in the context of weak force measurements in fluids.