Nanomechanical resonators operating as charge detectors in the nonlinear regime

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how silicon-based nanomechanical resonators can operate in the nonlinear regime to serve as highly sensitive charge detectors, utilizing hysteresis in magnetomotive response for improved detection capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of nonlinear nanomechanical resonators as sensitive charge detectors, leveraging hysteresis effects in magnetomotive response.

Findings

Resonators exhibit strong hysteresis enabling charge detection.

Nonlinear response enhances sensitivity compared to linear regime.

Device fabrication from Silicon-on-Insulator substrates is effective.

Abstract

We present measurements on nanomechanical resonators machined from Silicon-on-Insulator substrates. The resonators are designed as freely suspended Au/Si beams of lengths on the order of 1 - 4 um and a thickness of 200 nm. The beams are driven into nonlinear response by an applied modulation at radio frequencies and a magnetic field in plane. The strong hysteresis of the magnetomotive response allows sensitive charge detection by varying the electrostatic potential of a gate electrode.