Coupled Nanomechanical Electron Shuttles: Full Stochastic Modeling and Device-Level Simulation

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive stochastic model for coupled nanomechanical electron shuttles, enabling prediction and simulation of their rectification performance by capturing mechanical-electronic interactions and symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It introduces a full stochastic Markov chain model for coupled shuttles and derives deterministic equations for device-level simulation, advancing understanding of their rectification behavior.

Findings

Model captures symmetry breaking leading to rectification.

Enables complex device simulation and design.

Provides insights into coupled shuttle dynamics.

Abstract

Earlier theory and measurements show that nanomechanical electron shuttles can work as ratchets for radio-frequency rectification, but its performance was hard to predict so far. This paper focuses on the coupled shuttles which can potentially break symmetry better than a single shuttle. We propose a full stochastic model of coupled shuttles, where the mechanical motion of nanopillars and the incoherent electronic tunneling are modeled as a Markov chain. A linear master equation is constructed. In particular, the interaction of the their randomness is taken into account. This model favors analyzing the symmetry breaking that results in the observed rectification current~\cite{Kim2010_PRL}. Further, based on the model we propose the deterministic equations of mean physical variables by assuming multivariate Gaussian distribution, which enables complex device simulation and design.