Giant Acceleration of Free Diffusion by Use of Tilted Periodic Potentials

P. Reimann; C. Van den Broeck; H. Linke; P. Hänggi; J. M. Rubi; A. Pérez-Madrid

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.010602

Giant Acceleration of Free Diffusion by Use of Tilted Periodic Potentials

P. Reimann, C. Van den Broeck, H. Linke, P. Hänggi, J. M. Rubi, and A. Pérez-Madrid

Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 010602 – Published 18 June 2001

Abstract

The effective diffusion coefficient for the overdamped Brownian motion in a tilted periodic potential is calculated in closed analytical form. Universality classes and scaling properties for weak thermal noise are identified near the threshold tilt where deterministic running solutions set in. In this regime the diffusion may be greatly enhanced, as compared to free thermal diffusion with, for a realistic experimental setup, an enhancement of up to 14 orders of magnitude.

Received 27 February 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.010602

Authors & Affiliations

P. Reimann¹, C. Van den Broeck², H. Linke^3,4, P. Hänggi¹, J. M. Rubi⁵, and A. Pérez-Madrid⁵

¹Universität Augsburg, Institut für Physik, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany
²Limburgs Universitair Centrum, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
³School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2051, Australia
⁴Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1274
⁵Departament de Fisica Fonamental, Facultat de Fisica, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain