Stochastic resonance in AFM's

Stochastic resonance (SR) is an interesting phenomenon which can occur in bistable systems subject to both periodic and random forcing. This effect produces an improvement of the output signal-to-noise ratio when the input noise increases. In this paper we derive an expression for the power spectral density of a general class of systems revealing SR phenomena. This result may find useful applications in many technological contexts as, for example, in the analysis of the effects of thermal noise in atomic force microscopy, in order to optimize the achievable resolution for imaging.