Related papers: The charge shuttle as a nanomechanical ratchet

We theoretically investigate the flow of the atomic excitations in a driven chiral-coupled atomic chain with nonreciprocal decay channels. This one-dimensional system allows infinite-range dipole-dipole interaction, and enables directional…

We investigate electric current in a single-electron tunnelling device weakly coupled to an ac-driven underdamped harmonic nanomechanical oscillator. In the linear regime, the current can respond to the external frequency in a resonant as…

Soft nanosystems are electronic nanodevices, such as suspended carbon nanotubes or molecular junctions, whose transport properties are modulated by soft internal degrees of freedom, for example slow vibrational modes. In this review,…

Breaking time-reversal symmetry (TRS) in the absence of a net bias can give rise to directed steady-state non-equilibrium transport phenomena such as ratchet effects. Here we present, theoretically and experimentally, the concept of a…

The transport of a walker in rocking feedback-controlled ratchets are investigated. The walker consists of two coupled "feet" that allow the interchange of the order of the particles while the walker moves. In the underdamped case, the…

The problem of electron transport by means of a dumbbell shaped shuttle in strong Coulomb blockade regime is solved. The electrons may be shuttled only in the cotunneling regime during the time spans when both shoulders of the shuttle…

One-dimensional metals, such as quantum wires or carbon nanotubes, can carry charge in arbitrary units, smaller or larger than a single electron charge. However, according to Luttinger theory, which describes the low-energy excitations of…

We propose a new driving scheme, when different parts of a system are driven with different, generally incommensurate, frequencies. Such driving provides a flexible handle to control various properties of the system and to obtain new types…

We analyze the performance of quantum ratchets by considering the dynamics of an initially localized wave packet loaded into a flashing periodic potential. The directed center-of-mass motion can be initiated by the uniform modulation of the…

"Punchets" are hybrids between ratchets and pumps, combining a spatially periodic static potential, typically asymmetric under space inversion, with a local driving that breaks time-reversal invariance, and are intended to model metal or…

Recently, asymmetric plasmonic nanojunctions [Karnetzky et. al., Nature Comm. 2471, 9 (2018)] have shown promise as on-chip electronic devices to convert femtosecond optical pulses to current bursts, with a bandwidth of multi-terahertz…

We use a novel technique to experimentally explore transport properties through a single metallic nanoparticle with variable coupling to electric leads. For strong dot-lead coupling the conductance is an oscillatory function of the gate…

We study the influence of weak periodic signals on the transport properties of underdamped ratchets. We find that the constant current intervals related to the ratchet, can be significantly enlarged by a weak subharmonic signal which is in…

A flashing ratchet transports diffusive particles using a time-dependent, asymmetric potential. Particle speed is predicted to increase when a feedback algorithm based on particle positions is used. We have experimentally realized such a…

Using a new type of chaotic ratchet generated by pulsed standing waves of light, we propose a mechanism which would allow packets of atoms travelling through a pulsed optical lattice in one direction to pass almost undisturbed, while…

We study the charge transfer in a small grain oscillating between two leads. Coulomb blockade restricts the charge fluctuations in such a way that only zero or one additional electrons can sit on the grain. The system thus acts as a charge…

A thermoelectric effect of the noncentrosymmetric electron-phonon coupled system is proposed, in which a temperature difference between electrons and phonons, instead of a spatial temperature gradient, induces an electric current. This is a…

We obtain ratchet effect in inertial structureless systems in symmetric periodic potentials where the asymmetry comes from the nonuniform friction offered by the medium and driven by symmetric periodic forces. In the adiabatic limit the…

We study two capacitively coupled double quantum dots focusing on the regime in which one double dot is strongly biased, while no voltage is applied to the other. Then the latter experiences an effective driving force which induces a…

We theoretically predict and experimentally demonstrate that several different particle species can be separated from each other by means of a ratchet device, consisting of periodically arranged triangular (ratchet) shaped obstacles. We…