Read the recently published Contemporary Physics introductory review:
There’s plenty of energy at the bottom (Micro and nano scale nonlinear noise harvesting)
Luca Gammaitoni
Contemporary Physics Vol 53 (2) Pages 119-135
Abstract:
The future of mobile Information and Communication Technology will be strongly affected by our success in solving the question of how to power very small devices. Ambient energy harvesting has been in recent years the recurring object of a number of research efforts aimed at providing an autonomous solution to the powering of small-scale electronic devices. Among the different solutions, micro scale vibration energy harvesting has played a major role due to the almost universal presence of mechanical vibrations mainly in the form of random fluctuations, i.e. noise. In this paper we briefly discuss the role of micro-energies and the possibility to harvest them by employing nonlinear dynamical systems.
If you do not have institutional access to Contemporary Physics, I am pleased to offer you this paper for free, go to www.tandfonline.com/r/noiseharvesting. If you do not have a TandFonline username and password, you can create a personal account simply by registering for free when prompted. Once signed in, you will have access to the paper for 7 days. Free access is only available by using the above URL. This free access offer expires on 31st March 2012.
Contemporary Physics presents authoritative, lucid, introductory review articles on important recent developments in physics that can be profitably read by all those who wish to keep abreast of the field, whether they be physicists, physical scientists, engineers, or biological scientists who are employed in higher education, teaching industry, and government.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00107514.2011.647793