Enhancement of entropic transport by intermediates.

Brownian particles confined in a two-dimensional enclosure that give rise to a bistable entropic potential are considered. With the introduction of an intermediate lobe, the mean first passage time from one lobe to another through the intermediate shows a turnover behavior with the variation of the stability of the entropic intermediate. The mean escape time shows a minimum for an optimal value of the barrier height of the intermediate state. A three-state model is proposed to explain the nonmonotonic behavior of the entropic transport.