Eur. Phys. J. B (2012) 85: 162
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2012-20921-9

Regular Article

Directed transport in deformable ratchets

Laboratory of Quantum Information Technology, ICMP and SPTE, South China Normal University, 510006 Guangzhou, P.R. China

^a e-mail: aibq@scnu.edu.cn

Received: 11 September 2011
Received in final form: 7 March 2012
Published online: 24 May 2012

Abstract

Transport of overdamped Brownian particles in deformable potentials is investigated in the presence of asymmetrically unbiased fluctuations. It is found that the deformation of the potential can strongly affect the directed transport. For small noise strength, the current is not always monotonic function of deformable parameter. For large noise strength, there exists a value of deformable parameter at which the current takes its maximum. Therefore, it is possible to obtain the optimal transport by changing the deformation of the potential.