Impact of Transduction Scaling Laws on Nanoelectromechanical Systems

Abstract

We study the electromechanical transduction in nanoelectromechanical actuators and show that the differences in scaling laws for electrical and mechanical effects lead to an overall nontrivial miniaturization behavior. In particular, the previously neglected fringing fields considerably increase electrical forces and improve the stability of nanoscale actuators. This shows that electrostatics does not pose any limitations to the miniaturization of electromechanical systems; in fact, in several respects, nanosystems outperform their microscale counterparts. As a specific example, we consider in-plane actuation of ultrathin slabs and show that devices consisting of a few layers of graphene are feasible, implying that electromechanical resonators operating beyond 40 GHz are possible with currently available technology.

Fabry–Perot interferometric calibration of van der Waals material-based nanomechanical resonators

“…The calibrated vibrational amplitude at resonance, together with the resonator frequency, provides direct quantification of Young's elastic modulus, effective mass, and driving force felt by the NMR from a single response spectra 12 . From a practical standpoint, monitoring vibrational amplitude is essential in avoiding dynamic pull-in instability 13 when driving the NMR at high amplitude, which limits the actuation ranges for electromotive-driven NMRs. Furthermore, the vibrational resonant amplitude enables understanding of nonlinear regime of motion 14,15 and optomechanical effects on driven mechanics 8,16,17 , both of which are accessible for mechanical resonators with nanoscale dimensions, and embedded in motionsensitive interferometric platforms.…”

Direct assembly of nanowires by electron beam-induced dielectrophoresis

“…The whole assembly process occurs inside a vacuum environment free from liquids or gases, thus ruling out capillary forces and hydrodynamic forces, which are otherwise dominant in the assembly dynamics. Our findings are beneficial to better understanding sticking phenomena [28] and electrostatic actuations in micro-and nanoelectromechanical systems [29]. Besides, our strategy opens up new possibilities to study the nanoscale interaction mechanism in electromechanical systems, where the scaled-down dimensions can give rise to various intriguing effects like Casimir force [30,31] and photon heart transfer [32].…”

“…Our findings are beneficial to better understanding sticking phenomena 28 and electrostatic actuations in micro-and nanoelectromechanical systems. 29 Besides, our strategy opens up new possibilities to study the nanoscale interaction mechanism in electromechanical systems, where the scaleddown dimensions can give rise to various intriguing effects like Casimir force 30,31 and photon heart transfer. 32 4.…”

DNA double helix, a tiny electromotor

“…However, already at the sub-millimeter scale, rotary motion is best produced using electrostatic actuation. 8 At the nanoscale, biological molecular motors operate with high precision and efficiency 5 using a chemical reaction to bias direction of random displacement. 6 Some molecular motors, such as FoF1 ATP synthase 1 and the bacterial flagellum motor, 2 are true electromotors, transforming the energy of a transmembrane electric potential into rotation.…”