Stochastic resonance in bistable atomic switches

摘要

We have investigated the conductance of bistable gold atomic switches as a function of periodic input voltages mixed with a random noise. With increasing noise amplitude, the atomic switches biased below the threshold voltage for conductance switching start exhibiting switching in conductance between two stable states. Clear synchronization between the input and output signals is observed when an optimized noise amplitude is mixed with the periodic input voltage, even when the atomic switches are driven by an input voltage as low as approximately 10% of the threshold voltage. The observed behavior can be explained in terms of the stochastic resonance. The results presented here indicate that utilization of noise can dramatically reduce the operation voltage of metal atomic switches.