Poisson noise induced switching in driven micromechanical resonators

We study Poisson-noise induced switching between coexisting vibrational states in driven nonlinear micromechanical resonators. In contrast to Gaussian noise induced switching, the measured logarithm of the switching rate is proportional not to the reciprocal noise intensity, but to its logarithm, for fixed pulse area. We also find that the switching rate logarithm varies as a square root of the distance to the bifurcation point, instead of the conventional scaling with exponent 3/2.