Surface diffusion of a Brownian particle subjected to an external harmonic noise

Abstract

Langevin simulation is performed to investigate the diffusion coefficient of a Brownian particle subjected to an external harmonic noise in a two-dimensional coupled periodic potential. Resonant diffusion phenomenon is observed as a result of the coupling between the central frequency of the spectral density of the harmonic noise and the frequency of the potential well bottom. The diffusion coefficient presents approximately linear functions of the strengths of the internal and external noises for low values of the strengths, these functions can be understood by the local linearization approximation of the potential force. The damping coefficient dependence of the diffusion coefficient in lower damping is well fitted by a negative power function, as an internal Gaussian white noise case does, but with a power whose absolute value is larger than 1.