High-Strength Amorphous Silicon Carbide for Nanomechanics

Abstract

For decades, mechanical resonators with high sensitivity have been realized using thin-film materials under high tensile loads. Although there have been remarkable strides in achieving low-dissipation mechanical sensors by utilizing high tensile stress, the performance of even the best strategy is limited by the tensile fracture strength of the resonator materials. In this study, a wafer-scale amorphous thin film is uncovered, which has the highest ultimate tensile strength ever measured for a nanostructured amorphous material. This silicon carbide (SiC) material exhibits an ultimate tensile strength of over 10 GPa, reaching the regime reserved for strong crystalline materials and approaching levels experimentally shown in graphene nanoribbons. Amorphous SiC strings with high aspect ratios are fabricated, with mechanical modes exceeding quality factors 10^8 at room temperature, the highest value achieved among SiC resonators. These performances are demonstrated faithfully after characterizing the mechanical properties of the thin film using the resonance behaviors of free-standing resonators. This robust thin-film material has significant potential for applications in nanomechanical sensors, solar cells, biological applications, space exploration and other areas requiring strength and stability in dynamic environments. The findings of this study open up new possibilities for the use of amorphous thin-film materials in high-performance applications.

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• Ultra-coherent nanomechanical resonators via soft clamping and dissipation dilution
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• Resolution Limits of Resonant Sensors with Duffing Non-Linearity
• Casimir spring and dilution in macroscopic cavity optomechanics
• High-Q trampoline resonators from strained crystalline InGaP for integrated free-space optomechanics
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Centimeter-scale nanomechanical resonators with low dissipation
• Tuning dissipation dilution in 2D material resonators by MEMS-induced tension
• Sub-ppm Nanomechanical Absorption Spectroscopy of Silicon Nitride
• Nanomechanical crystalline AlN resonators with high quality factors for quantum optoelectromechanics
• Low-Dissipation Nanomechanical Devices from Monocrystalline Silicon Carbide
• Magnetic Trampoline Resonators from (La,Sr)MnO3 Single-Crystal Thin Films
• Accurate, precise pressure sensing with tethered optomechanics
• Monolithic 4H-SiC nanomechanical resonators with high intrinsic quality factors
• Effect of Helium Ion Implantation on 3C-SiC Nanomechanical String Resonators