Nanomechanical Resonators: Toward Atomic Scale

Authors

Bo Xu, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Pengcheng Zhang, University of Michigan, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Jiankai Zhu, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Zuheng Liu, University of Michigan, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Alexander Eichler, ETH Zurich
Xu-Qian Zheng, University of Florida, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Jaesung Lee, University of Florida, University of Texas at El Paso
Aneesh Dash, Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science
Swapnil More, Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science
Song Wu, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Yanan Wang, University of Florida, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Hao Jia, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Akshay Naik, Indian Institute of Science
Adrian Bachtold, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
Rui Yang, University of Michigan, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Philip X.-L. Feng, University of Florida
Zenghui Wang, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

9-2-2022

Citation

ACS Nano. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c01673

Comments

© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society

Abstract

The quest for realizing and manipulating ever smaller man-made movable structures and dynamical machines has spurred tremendous endeavors, led to important discoveries, and inspired researchers to venture to previously unexplored grounds. Scientific feats and technological milestones of miniaturization of mechanical structures have been widely accomplished by advances in machining and sculpturing ever shrinking features out of bulk materials such as silicon. With the flourishing multidisciplinary field of low-dimensional nanomaterials, including one-dimensional (1D) nanowires/nanotubes and two-dimensional (2D) atomic layers such as graphene/ phosphorene, growing interests and sustained effort have been devoted to creating mechanical devices toward the ultimate limit of miniaturization--genuinely down to the molecular or even atomic scale. These ultrasmall movable structures, particularly nanomechanical resonators that exploit the vibratory motion in these 1D and 2D nano-to-atomic-scale structures, offer exceptional device-level attributes, such as ultralow mass, ultrawide frequency tuning range, broad dynamic range, and ultralow power consumption, thus holding strong promises for both fundamental studies and engineering applications. In this Review, we offer a comprehensive overview and summary of this vibrant field, present the state-of-the-art devices and evaluate their specifications and performance, outline important achievements, and postulate future directions for studying these miniscule yet intriguing molecular-scale machines.