Experimental observation of coherence resonance in an excitable chemical reaction system

Dynamics of an excitable Belousov-Zabotinsky reaction system under an external noise are investigated using cation exchange beads loaded with the cationic catalyst. When a noise amplitude is increased above a certain value, an oscillatory state appears. It is shown that the coherence of these noise-excited oscillations is maximal for a suitable value of the noise amplitude. This phenomenon is characterized by using various statistical measures, such as the signal-to-noise ratio in the power spectrum, the correlation time of the noise-excited oscillation, and the standard deviation of time intervals between successive firing events. We find the experimental evidence that the period of coherent oscillation is determined by a characteristic time scale of the system.