| Issue |
EPL
Volume 78, Number 5, June 2007
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 50004 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | General | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/78/50004 | |
| Published online | 22 May 2007 | |
Pulsating potential ratchet
Universität Bielefeld, Fakultät für Physik - Universitätsstr. 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
Received:
7
February
2007
Accepted:
20
April
2007
We consider Brownian motion in a periodic array of potential wells. The potential barriers between adjacent wells are spatially symmetric and pulsating periodically in time. While the modulation amplitude is the same for all barriers, the spatial symmetry is broken by sequentially alternating the respective pulsation frequencies among three different incommensurate values. The result is a net motion (ratchet effect), whose direction depends in an intriguing way on the detailed choice of parameters.
PACS: 05.40.-a – Fluctuation phenomena, random processes, noise, and Brownian motion / 02.50.Ey – Stochastic processes / 05.60.Cd – Classical transport
© Europhysics Letters Association, 2007
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