# High-frequency stochastic switching of graphene resonators near room temperature

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that graphene membrane resonators can achieve high-frequency stochastic switching at near room temperature, significantly outperforming silicon resonators in speed and fluctuation energy, with potential applications in weak signal detection.

## Contribution

The study introduces graphene resonators capable of rapid, low-temperature stochastic switching, surpassing silicon devices in speed and efficiency, and provides analytical models for understanding the dynamics.

## Key findings

- Achieved 7.8 kHz switching rate in graphene resonators.
- Fluctuation temperature around 400 K, much lower than silicon counterparts.
- Numerical simulations and analytical models elucidate transition dynamics.

## Abstract

Stochastic switching between the two bistable states of a strongly driven mechanical resonator enables detection of weak signals based on probability distributions, in a manner that mimics biological systems. However, conventional silicon resonators at the microscale require a large amount of fluctuation power to achieve a switching rate in the order of a few Hertz. Here, we employ graphene membrane resonators of atomic thickness to achieve a stochastic switching rate of 7.8 kHz, which is 200 times faster than current state-of-the-art. The (effective) temperature of the fluctuations is approximately 400 K, which is 3000 times lower than the state-of-the-art. This shows that these membranes are potentially useful to transduce weak signals in the audible frequency domain. Furthermore, we perform numerical simulations to understand the transition dynamics of the resonator and derive simple analytical expressions to investigate the relevant scaling parameters that allow high-frequency, low-temperature stochastic switching to be achieved in mechanical resonators.