Disorder induced diffusive transport in ratchets.
The effects of quenched disorder on the overdamped motion of a driven particle on a periodic, asymmetric potential are studied. While for the unperturbed potential the transport is due to a regular drift, the quenched disorder induces a significant additional chaotic "diffusive" motion. Possible applications to experiments in nanoscale surfaces and particle separation are discussed.
Popescu
M N
MN
Department of Physics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.
Arizmendi
C M
CM
Salas-Brito
A L
AL
Family
F
F
D004058:Diffusion; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013269:Stochastic Processes