Nonlinear detection mechanism in quantitative atomic force microscopy characterization of high-frequency nanoelectromechanical systems

作者：Serra Garcia Marc; Perez Murano Francesc; San Paulo Alvaro^*

来源：Physical Review B, 2012, 85(3): 035433.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevB.85.035433

We investigate the transduction of motion from a nanomechanical resonator to the cantilever/tip probe of an atomic force microscope. Our results show that amplitude-modulated high-frequency vibrations of nanomechanical resonators can be measured by means of a low-resonance frequency cantilever as a consequence of the demodulation introduced by the nonlinear forces involved in the system. The theoretical model presented in this paper enables the quantitative application of atomic force microscopy (AFM) for the characterization of a wide variety of devices. An analysis based on this model of previously reported experiments in carbon nanotube and graphene resonators demonstrates the ability of AFM to measure vibration amplitudes in the subnanometer range without significant perturbation of the resonators.

• 出版日期2012-1-20