Optically levitated nanoparticle as a model system for stochastic bistable dynamics Ricci, F Rica Alarcón, Raúl Alberto Spasenovic, M. Gieseler, J. Rondin, L. Novotny, L. Quidant, R. Nanoparticles Nonlinear phenomena Statistical physics Nano-mechanical resonators have gained an increasing importance in nanotechnology owing to their contributions to both fundamental and applied science. Yet, their small dimensions and mass raises some challenges as their dynamics gets dominated by nonlinearities that degrade their performance, for instance in sensing applications. Here, we report on the precise control of the nonlinear and stochastic bistable dynamics of a levitated nanoparticle in high vacuum. We demonstrate how it can lead to efficient signal amplification schemes, including stochastic resonance. This work contributes to showing the use of levitated nanoparticles as a model system for stochastic bistable dynamics, with applications to a wide variety of fields. 2017-05-26T12:03:35Z 2017-05-26T12:03:35Z 2017-05-09 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Ricci, F. ; et al. Optically levitated nanoparticle as a model system for stochastic bistable dynamics. Nature Communications, 8: 15141 (2017). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/46543] 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/46543 10.1038/ncomms15141 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Nature Publishing Group