  Brownian dynamics simulations are used to study the detachment of a particle
from a substrate. Although the model is simple and generic, we attempt to map
its energy, length and time scales onto a specific experimental system, namely
a bead that is weakly bound to a cell and then removed by an optical tweezer.
The external driving force arises from the combined optical tweezer and
substrate potentials, and thermal fluctuations are taken into account by a
Brownian force. The Jarzynski equality and Crooks' fluctuation theorem are
applied to obtain the equilibrium free energy difference between the final and
initial states. To this end, we sample non--equilibrium work trajectories for
various tweezer pulling rates. We argue that this methodology should also be
feasible experimentally for the envisioned system. Furthermore, we outline how
the measurement of a whole free energy profile would allow the experimentalist
to retrieve the unknown substrate potential by means of a suitable
deconvolution. The influence of the pulling rate on the accuracy of the results
is investigated, and umbrella sampling is used to obtain the equilibrium
probability of particle escape for a variety of trap potentials.
