Active Brownian motion in threshold distribution of a Coulomb blockade model

Abstract

Randomly distributed offset charges affect the nonlinear current-voltage property via the fluctuation of the threshold voltage above which the current flows in an array of a Coulomb blockade (CB). We analytically derive the distribution of the threshold voltage for a model of one-dimensional locally coupled CB arrays and propose a general relationship between conductance and distribution. In addition, we show that the distribution for a long array is equivalent to the distribution of the number of upward steps for aligned objects of different heights. The distribution satisfies a novel Fokker-Planck equation corresponding to active Brownian motion. The feature of the distribution is clarified by comparing it with the Wigner and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes. It is not restricted to the CB model but is instructive in statistical physics generally. © 2011 American Physical Society.