Viscous damping of nanobeam resonators: humidity, thermal noise and the paddling effect

TL;DR

This paper investigates how environmental factors like humidity and thermal noise affect the damping and dynamic behavior of nanobeam resonators, revealing new phenomena such as paddling effects through simulations and analysis.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative analysis of damping behavior in nanobeam resonators considering humidity, thermal fluctuations, and introduces the paddling effect as a novel phenomenon.

Findings

Humidity influences the critical damping condition.

Thermal fluctuations affect resonator dynamics.

Paddling effect is identified as a new phenomenon.

Abstract

The nanobeam resonator is the key mechanical component in the nano-electromechanical system. In addition to its high frequency originating from its low dimension, the performance is significantly influenced by the circumstances, especially at nanoscale where a large surface area of the material is exposed. Molecular dynamics simulations and theoretical analysis are used for a quantitative prediction on the damping behavior, such as the critical damping condition and lifetime, of nanobeam resonators that directly maps the fluid-structure properties and interaction information into dynamical behaviors. We show here how the humidity defines the critical damping condition through viscous forces, marking the transition from under-damping to over-damping regime at elevated humidity. Novel phenomena such as the thermal fluctuation and paddling effects are also discussed.