Scaling properties of noise-induced switching in a bistable tunnel diode circuit

Abstract

Noise-induced switching between coexisting metastable states occurs in a wide range of far-fromequilibrium systems including micro-mechanical oscillators, epidemiological and climate change models, and nonlinear electronic transport in tunneling structures such as semiconductor superlattices and tunnel diodes. In the case of tunnel diode circuits, noise-induced switching behavior is associated with negative differential resistance in the static current-voltage characteristics and bistability, i.e., the existence of two macroscopic current states for a given applied voltage. Noise effects are particularly strong near the onset and offset of bistable current behavior, corresponding to bifurcation points in the associated dynamical system. In this paper, we show that the tunnel diode system provides an excellent experimental platform for the precision measurement of scaling properties of mean switching times versus applied voltage near bifurcation points. More specifically, experimental data confirm that the mean switching time scales logarithmically as the 3/2 power of voltage difference over an exceptionally wide range of time scales and noise intensities.

Bursting and excitability in neuromorphic resonant tunneling diodes

“…We note that additive white noise is the simplest implementation of a stochastic process. However, the recent statistical analysis of switching times in bistable RTDs [30] and the excellent agreement over a wide dynamical range found using a simple white-noise model seems to indicate that the latter is indeed quite adapted to the problem at hand. For the sake of completeness, we mention that additional noise can be introduced in the current Eq.…”