Nonlinear damping in mechanical resonators based on graphene and carbon nanotubes

TL;DR

This paper reveals that nonlinear damping dominates the dissipation in graphene and carbon nanotube resonators, causing their quality factor to depend on amplitude, which is a novel behavior compared to traditional linear damping models.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that nonlinear damping governs the dissipation in graphene and nanotube resonators, a significant departure from conventional linear damping assumptions.

Findings

Dissipation in nanotube and graphene resonators is dominated by nonlinear damping.

Quality factor Q depends strongly on the amplitude of motion.

Nonlinear damping can be exploited to enhance resonator performance.

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes and graphene allow fabricating outstanding nanomechanical resonators. They hold promise for various scientific and technological applications, including sensing of mass, force, and charge, as well as the study of quantum phenomena at the mesoscopic scale. Here, we have discovered that the dynamics of nanotube and graphene resonators is in fact highly exotic. We propose an unprecedented scenario where mechanical dissipation is entirely determined by nonlinear damping. As a striking consequence, the quality factor Q strongly depends on the amplitude of the motion. This scenario is radically different from that of other resonators, whose dissipation is dominated by a linear damping term. We believe that the difference stems from the reduced dimensionality of carbon nanotubes and graphene. Besides, we exploit the nonlinear nature of the damping to improve the figure of merit of nanotube/graphene resonators.