High-amplitude dynamics of nanoelectromechanical systems fabricated on the basis of GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures

Abstract

Nonlinear vibrations of nanoelectromechanical beam fabricated from the GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure containing two-dimensional electron gas are investigated. The measurement of time-averaged conductance is shown to be a sensitive method for the nanomechanical motion detection. The possibilities to excite high-amplitude (up to 20 nm) mechanical vibrations and to effectively detect them using the simple conductance measurement make such systems promising for practical applications. High-amplitude vibrations of the beam are shown to demonstrate softening nonlinearity. This can be attributed to the bending of the beam due to Euler buckling instability caused by the compressive stress though GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures are typically considered as stress-free.

Piezoelectric Electromechanical Coupling in Nanomechanical Resonators with a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas

“…For example, papers [5,6] show that the electron transport through a quantum point contact placed on a micromechanical resonator is sensitive to mechanical vibrations. Papers [2,7,8] demonstrate that diffusive conductive channels in 2DEG can also be used as nanoelectromechanical transducers.The two fundamental key points arising in the context of NEMS are the physical mechanisms underlying actuation and transduction of the nanomechanical motion. The question about the actuation in NEMS with 2DEG is addressed elsewhere [7], while, in the present paper, we focus on the transduction mechanism.…”

“…For example, papers [5,6] show that the electron transport through a quantum point contact placed on a micromechanical resonator is sensitive to mechanical vibrations. Papers [2,7,8] demonstrate that diffusive conductive channels in 2DEG can also be used as nanoelectromechanical transducers.…”