Fractal-like mechanical resonators with soft-clamped fundamental mode

Abstract

Self-similar structures occur naturally and have been employed to engineer exotic physical properties. Here we show that acoustic modes of a fractal-like system of tensioned strings can display increased mechanical quality factors due to the enhancement of dissipation dilution. We describe a realistic resonator design in which the quality factor of the fundamental mode is enhanced by as much as two orders of magnitude compared to a simple string with the same size and tension. Our findings can open new avenues in force sensing, cavity quantum optomechanics and experiments with suspended test masses.

References in corpus (3)

• High quality mechanical and optical properties of commercial silicon nitride membranes
• Optical dilution and feedback cooling of a gram-scale oscillator to 6.9 mK
• Casimir Force and In Situ Surface Potential Measurements on Nanomembranes

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Towards cavity-free ground state cooling of an acoustic-frequency silicon nitride membrane