Hysteresis shaping in stochastic driven systems

A large set of sensors (SQUID, piezoelectric, etc.) show a nonlinear calibration curve due to the hysteresis phenomenon. Moreover, sensors usually work in the presence of noise that very often compromises the sensitivity of the device in the low-level range. A useful way to investigate the behavior of such a complex system is to model the hysteresis with the well-known quartic double well (QDW) potential subjected to noise-driven fluctuations along with a periodic signal. The authors have previously discussed the analysis of such a system in the case when a deterministic signal is forced in. In this paper, an analysis of the QDW potential subjected to both dissipation and stochastic fluctuation along with an external deterministic forcing signal is performed to investigate the possibility of optimizing the system sensitivity, by a suitable shaping of the hysteresis, as the forcing term characteristics change. This study can help to improve the feature of a general class of devices forced with a low-amplitude signal, located in a noisy environment. Moreover, suitable issues useful during the design phase of the devices can be obtained