Fluctuation-enhanced frequency mixing in a nonlinear micromechanical oscillator

Abstract

We study noise-enhanced frequency mixing in an underdamped micromechanical torsional oscillator. The oscillator is electrostatically driven into bistability by a strong, periodic voltage at frequency ${\omega }_d$. A second, weak ac voltage is applied at a frequency $\omega$ close to ${\omega }_d$. Due to nonlinearity in the system, vibrations occur at both $\omega$ and $2{\omega }_d-\omega$. White noise is injected into the excitation, allowing the system to occasionally overcome the activation barrier and switch between the two states. At the primary drive frequency where the occupations of the two states are approximately equal, we observe noise-induced enhancement of the oscillation amplitudes at both $\omega$ and the down-converted frequency $2{\omega }_d-\omega$, in agreement with theoretical predictions. Such enhancement occurs as a result of the noise-induced interstate transitions becoming synchronous with the beating between the two driving frequencies.

4 pages 5 figures

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Mass Detection with Nonlinear Nanomechanical Resonator
• Resonant symmetry lifting in a parametrically modulated oscillator
• Displacement Detection with a Vibrating RF SQUID: Beating the Standard Linear Limit
• Exponential peak and scaling of work fluctuations in modulated systems
• Signal Amplification in NbN Superconducting Resonators via Stochastic Resonance