X-ray and Neutron Reflectivity
Principles and Applications
Article
We report on a single-atom energy-conversion quantum device operating as an engine, or a refrigerator, coupled to a quantum load. The ‘working fluid’ consists of the two optical levels of an ion, while the loa...
Article
In stochastic resonance, the combination of a weak signal with noise leads to its amplification and optimization1. This phenomenon has been observed in several systems in contexts ranging from palaeoclimatology, ...
Article
The performance of a ring of linearly coupled, monostable nonlinear oscillators is optimized towards its goal of acting as energy harvester – through piezoelectric transduction – of mesoscopic fluctuations, w...
Article
An artificial microswimmer drifts in response to spatio-temporal modulations of an activating suspension medium. We consider two competing mechanisms capable of influencing its tactic response: angular fluctua...
Article
We investigate the escape rate of an overdamped, self-propelled spherical Brownian particle on a surface from a metastable potential well. Within a modeling in terms of a 1D constant speed of the particle’s a...
Article
We study far from equilibrium transport of a periodically driven inertial Brownian particle moving in a periodic potential. As detected for a SQUID ratchet dynamics, the mean square deviation of the particle p...
Article
The term quantum physics refers to the phenomena and characteristics of atomic and subatomic systems which cannot be explained by classical physics. Quantum physics has had a long tradition in Germany, going b...
Article
The ratchet phenomenon is a means to get directed transport without net forces. Originally conceived to rectify stochastic motion and describe operational principles of biological motors, the ratchet effect ca...
Chapter
The study of heat transport in low-dimensional oscillator lattices presents a formidable challenge. Theoretical efforts have been made trying to reveal the underlying mechanism of diversified heat transport be...
Article
Thermoelectric efficiency is defined as the ratio of power delivered to the load of a device to the rate of heat flow from the source. Till date, it has been studied in presence of thermodynamic constraints se...
Article
Fluctuation theorems go beyond the linear response regime to describe systems far from equilibrium. But what happens to these theorems when we enter the quantum realm? The answers, it seems, are now coming thi...
Article
From the exact solution of the Dirac-Weyl equation we find unusual currents j y running in y-direction parallel to a time-dependent scalar potential bar...
Reference Work Entry In depth
Glossary
Article
The practical use of electronic ratchets has long been hampered by low output powers and cryogenic operating temperatures. A pentacene-based organic ratchet can now drive electronic circuitry at room temperature.
Chapter
Thermal fluctuations alone cannot create a steady directed transport in an unbiased system. However, if a system is out of equilibrium, the Second Law of Thermodynamics no longer applies, and then there are no...
Article
The unification of relativity and thermodynamics has been a subject of considerable debate over the past 100 years. The reasons for this are twofold. First, thermodynamic variables are non-local quantities and...
Book
Book
Chapter
We consider the self-organized escape of a linear chain of coupled units from a metastable state over a barrier in a microcanonical situation.Initially the units of the chain are situated near the bottom of th...
Chapter
The dynamics of Brownian motion has widespread applications extending from transport in designed micro-channels up to its prominent role for inducing transport in molecular motors and Brownian motors. Here, Br...