Audio mixing in a tri-port nano-electro-mechanical device

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates mechanical signal mixing in a tri-port nano-electro-mechanical device using a capacitive gate, providing an alternative linear regime technique to nonlinear mixing, supported by analytic theory.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mixing method in NEMS devices using a capacitive gate, applicable in the linear regime and supported by a parameter-free analytic model.

Findings

Mixing achieved at low magnetomotive drives

No conduction measurements needed for detection

Analytic theory accurately reproduces experimental data

Abstract

We report on experiments performed on a cantilever-based tri-port nano-electro-mechanical (NEMS) device. Two ports are used for actuation and detection through the magnetomotive scheme, while the third port is a capacitively coupled gate electrode. By applying a low frequency voltage signal on the gate, we demonstrate mixing in the mechanical response of the device, even for {\it low magnetomotive drives, without resorting to conduction measurements through the NEMS}. The technique can thus be used in particular in the linear regime, as an alternative to nonlinear mixing, for normal conducting devices. An analytic theory is presented reproducing the data without free parameters