Evidence for Quantized Displacement in Macroscopic Nanomechanical Oscillators

TL;DR

This paper reports the observation of quantized displacement in macroscopic nanomechanical oscillators at millikelvin temperatures, indicating possible quantum behavior in large-scale mechanical systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates discrete displacement in silicon nanomechanical oscillators with gigahertz frequencies, a novel observation suggesting quantum effects at macroscopic scales.

Findings

Discrete displacement observed at millikelvin temperatures

Amplification of femtometer displacements into collective motion

Possible evidence of energy quantization in macroscopic oscillators

Abstract

We report the observation of discrete displacement of nanomechanical oscillators with gigahertz-range resonance frequencies at millikelvin temperatures. The oscillators are nanomachined single-crystal structures of silicon, designed to provide two distinct sets of coupled elements with very low and very high frequencies. With this novel design, femtometer-level displacement of the frequency-determining element is amplified into collective motion of the entire micron-sized structure. The observed discrete response possibly results from energy quantization at the onset of the quantum regime in these macroscopic nanomechanical oscillators.