Real-time measurement of nanotube resonator fluctuations in an electron microscope

Abstract

Mechanical resonators based on low-dimensional materials provide a unique platform for exploring a broad range of physical phenomena. The mechanical vibrational states are indeed extremely sensitive to charges, spins, photons, and adsorbed masses. However, the roadblock is often the readout of the resonator, since the detection of the vibrational states becomes increasingly difficult for smaller resonators. Here, we report an unprecedentedly sensitive method to detect nanotube resonators with effective masses in the 10^-20 kg range. We use the beam of an electron microscope to resolve the mechanical fluctuations of a nanotube in real-time for the first time. We obtain full access to the thermally-driven Brownian motion of the resonator, both in space and time domains. Our results establish the viability of carbon nanotube resonator technology at room temperature and pave the way towards the observation of novel thermodynamics regimes and quantum effects in nano-mechanics.

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Cited by in corpus (17)

• Nanomechanical Resonators: Toward Atomic Scale
• Mesoscopic physics of nanomechanical systems
• A coherent nanomechanical oscillator driven by single-electron tunnelling
• Ultrasensitive Displacement Noise Measurement of Carbon Nanotube Mechanical Resonators
• Mass sensing for the advanced fabrication of nanomechanical resonators
• Force sensing with nanowire cantilevers
• Turing complete mechanical processor via automated nonlinear system design
• Stochastic band structure for waves propagating in periodic media or along waveguides
• Interrelation of elasticity and thermal bath in nanotube cantilevers
• MicroMegascope
• Shot noise limited nanomechanical detection and radiation pressure backaction from an electron beam
• Two-level system as topological actuator for nanomechanical modes
• Imaging nanomechanical vibrations and manipulating parametric mode coupling via scanning microwave microscopy
• Temperature mediated back-action in micro- and nanomechanical resonators
• Stepwise relaxation and stochastic precession in degenerate oscillators dispersively coupled to particles
• Atomic Force Nanoscope
• Heat diffusion related damping process in highly precise coarse-grained model for SWCNT's nonlinearity