  A Brownian particle in a symmetric double well potential is used as a
representation for a single bit memory, where, the location of the particle in
either well denotes one of the two states of a single bit memory. This article
analyzes the effect of modifications to a symmetric double well potential on
the minimum heat dissipation associated with erasure of the information stored
in a single bit memory. Two types of modifications are considered, viz.,
overlap between the two wells and the asymmetry between the two wells of a bit
of memory. Moreover, the analysis presented here, takes into account the
uncertainty in the success of the erasure process. We quantify the effect of
the proposed modifications on the heat dissipation accompanying erasure of a
bit of information with a comparison to the Landauer's bound. In particular, we
conclude that the proposed modifications could result in the minimum heat
dissipation being lower than the Landauer's bound in quasi-static erasure
processes. Furthermore, we quantify the physical aspect ratio for designing a
memory bit which could improve memory density.
