High- Q, in-plane modes of nanomechanical resonators operated in air

Philip S. Waggoner, Christine P. Tan, Leon Bellan, Harold G. Craighead

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nanomechanical resonators have traditionally been limited to use in vacuum due to low quality factors that come as a result of viscous damping effects in air or liquid. We have fabricated arrays of 90 nm thick trampoline-shaped resonators, studied their resonant frequency spectrum as a function of pressure, and found that some high frequency modes exhibit quality factors over 2000 at atmospheric pressure. We have excited the in-plane resonances of these devices, verified their identities both experimentally and with finite element modeling, and demonstrated their advantageous characteristics for ambient sensing. Even after deposition of a relatively thick polymer layer, the in-plane resonant modes still boast quality factors on the order of 2000. These results show promise for the use of nanomechanical resonant sensors in real-time atmospheric sensing applications.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number094315
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume105
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'High- Q, in-plane modes of nanomechanical resonators operated in air'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this