  Living cells are known to generate non-Gaussian active fluctuations that are
significantly larger than thermal fluctuations owing to various metabolic
activities. Understanding the effect of active fluctuations on various
physicochemical processes, such as the transport of molecular motors, is a
fundamental problem in nonequilibrium physics. Therefore, we experimentally and
numerically study an active Brownian ratchet comprising a colloidal particle in
an optically generated asymmetric periodic potential driven by non-Gaussian
noise with finite-amplitude active bursts, each arriving at random and decaying
exponentially. We determine that the particle velocity is maximum for
relatively sparse bursts with finite correlation time and non-Gaussian
distribution. These occasional kicks are more efficient for transport and
diffusion enhancement of the particle, compared to the incessant kicks of
active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise. The ratchet reverses its transport direction
only when the noise correlation time is shorter than the thermal relaxation
time, suggesting possible application in nanoparticle separation.
