title: Thermal activation at moderate-to-high and high damping: finite barrier effects and force spectroscopy.
abstract: We study the thermal escape problem in the moderate-to-high and high damping regime of a system with a parabolic barrier. We present a formula that matches our numerical results accounting for finite barrier effects, and compare it with previous works. We also show results for the full damping range. We quantitatively study some aspects on the relation between mean first passage time and the definition of an escape rate. To finish, we apply our results and considerations in the framework of force spectroscopy problems. We study the differences on the predictions using the different theories and discuss the role of γF[over dot] as the relevant parameter at high damping.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada and Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragón, CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Mazo
authors.forename: O Y
authors.initials: OY
authors.lastname: Fajardo
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zueco