Related papers: The charge shuttle as a nanomechanical ratchet
We have studied the rectified current in a geometrically symmetric nano-electromechanical shuttle with periodic kicks and sinusoidal ac bias voltages. The rectified current is exactly zero under the geometrical symmetry which is generated…
The behavior of a charge shuttle under a pure AC field has been recently considered theoretically and experimentally. If the system presents an asymmetry in the tunneling amplitudes the device acts as a nano-electromechanical rectifier,…
We investigate the transport and the dynamical properties of tunnel-coupled double charge shuttles. The oscillation frequencies of two shuttles are mode-locked to integer multiples of the applied voltage frequency $\omega$. We show that…
Earlier theory and measurements show that nanomechanical electron shuttles can work as ratchets for radio-frequency rectification, but its performance was hard to predict so far. This paper focuses on the coupled shuttles which can…
Ratchets are dynamic systems where particle transport is induced by zero-average forces due to the interplay between nonlinearity and asymmetry. Generally, they rely on the effect of a strong external driving. We show that stationary…
The nanomechanical single-electron shuttle is a resonant system in which a suspended metallic island oscillates between and impacts at two electrodes. This setup holds promise for one-by-one electron transport and the establishment of an…
Traditionally the charge ratchet effect is considered as a consequence of either the spatial symmetry breaking engineered by asymmetric periodic potentials, or time asymmetry of the driving fields. Here we demonstrate that electrically and…
A quantum shuttle is an archetypical nanoelectromechanical device, where the mechanical degree of freedom is quantized. Using a full-scale numerical solution of the generalized master equation describing the shuttle, we have recently shown…
In this work we propose a ratchet effect which provides a general means of performing clocked logic operations on discrete particles, such as single electrons or vortices. The states are propagated through the device by the use of an…
The problem of the classical deterministic dynamics of a particle in a periodic asymmetric potential of the ratchet type is addressed. When the inertial term is taken into account, the dynamics can be chaotic and modify the transport…
Room-temperature Coulomb blockade of charge transport through composite nanostructures containing organic inter-links has recently been observed. A pronounced charging effect in combination with the softness of the molecular links implies…
We investigate theoretically the dynamics of a spatially symmetric shuttle-system subjected to an ac gate voltage. We demonstrate that in such a system parametric excitation gives rise to mechanical vibrations when the frequency of the ac…
Ratchet effect in a driven underdamped periodic potential system is studied. The presence of a space dependent and periodic friction coefficient, but with a phase difference with the symmetric periodic potential is shown to generate…
The voltage dependence of nanoelectromechanical effects in a system where the quantized mechanical vibrations of a quantum dot are coupled to coherent tunneling of electrons through a single level in the dot is studied. It is found that…
Directed transport in ratchets is determined by symmetry-breaking in a system out of equilibrium. A hallmark of rocking ratchets is current reversals: an increase in the rocking force changes the direction of the current. In this work for a…
Efficiency of generation of net unidirectional current in an adiabatically driven symmetric periodic potential system is studied. The efficiency shows a maximum, in the case of an inhomogeneous system with spatially varying periodic…
The realization of a directed current for a quantum particle in a flashing asymmetric potential is studied. It is found that a positive current, i.e. in the direction expected for a conventional diffusive ratchet, can be attained at short…
We investigate electron shuttling in three-terminal nanoelectromechanocal device built on a movable metallic rod oscillating between two drains. The device shows a double-well shaped electromechanical potential tunable by a source-drain…
One core challenge of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) is their efficient actuation. A promising concept superseding resonant driving is self-oscillation. Here we demonstrate voltage-sustained self-oscillation of a nanomechanical charge…
We investigate the transport properties of a new class of ratchets. The device is constructed by applying an ac voltage to the metallic single electron tunneling transistor, and a net transport current is induced by the time-dependent…