Temperature Dependent Non-linear Damping in Palladium Nano-mechanical Resonators

TL;DR

This study reports the first observation of temperature-dependent non-linear damping in palladium nano-mechanical resonators at sub-Kelvin temperatures, revealing a two phonon mediated damping mechanism consistent with Akhiezer theory.

Contribution

It demonstrates for the first time a temperature-dependent non-linear damping in nano-mechanical systems below 1 K, aligning with a phonon-mediated damping model.

Findings

Damping peaks at ~110 mK and decreases up to 1 K.

Enhanced Duffing non-linearity observed at low temperatures.

Consistent with two phonon Akhiezer damping scenario.

Abstract

Advances in nano-fabrication techniques has made it feasible to observe damping phenomena beyond the linear regime in nano-mechanical systems. In this work, we report cubic non-linear damping in palladium nano-mechanical resonators. Nano-scale palladium beams exposed to a $H_2$ atmosphere become softer and display enhanced Duffing non-linearity as well as non-linear damping at ultra low temperatures. The damping is highest at the lowest temperatures of $\sim 110\: mK$ and decreases when warmed up-to $\sim 1\textrm{ }K$. We experimentally demonstrate for the first time a temperature dependent non-linear damping in a nano-mechanical system below 1 K. It is consistent with a predicted two phonon mediated non-linear Akhiezer scenario for ballistic phonons with mean free path comparable to the beam thickness. This opens up new possibilities to engineer non-linear phenomena at low temperatures.