4 research outputs found

    Impact of van der Waals forces on the classical shuttle instability

    Full text link
    The effects of including the van der Waals interaction in the modelling of the single electron shuttle have been investigated numerically. It is demonstrated that the relative strength of the vdW-forces and the elastic restoring forces determine the characteristics of the shuttle instability. In the case of weak elastic forces and low voltages the grain is trapped close to one lead, and this trapping can be overcome by Coulomb forces by applying a bias voltage VV larger than a threshold voltage VuV_{\rm u}. This allows for grain motion leading to an increase in current by several orders of magnitude above the transition voltage VuV_{\rm u}. Associated with the process is also hysteresis in the I-V characteristics.Comment: minor revisions, updated references, Article published in Phys. Rev. B 69, 035309 (2004
    corecore