First-passage statistics of confined colloids

The encounter of diffusing entities underlies a wide range of natural phenomena. The dynamics of these first-passage dynamics are strongly influenced by confining geometries. Confinement modifies microscopic diffusion through conservative and hydrodynamic interactions, making it essential for realistic modeling. In this Letter, we investigate how confinement affects the first-passage statistics of a diffusing particle. Using $\mathit{\text{state-of-the-art}}$ holographic microscopy combined with advanced statistical inference, we probe this motion with nanometric precision. Our experimental and numerical results show that confinement can either hinder or enhance first-passage kinetics, depending on the spatial direction. In particular, wall-normal target finding is accelerated by confinement-induced non-Gaussian displacement statistics, which increases the probability of rare, large displacements, with implications for confined chemical reactions and biological $\mathit{\text{winners-take-all}}$ processes near boundaries.