Surface roughness effects on the frequency tuning performance of a nanoelectromechanical resonator

Abstract

Electrothermal heating is one of radio frequency tuning method in nanoelectromechanical resonators with magnetomotive transduction. This study confirmed that the surface roughness of the nanoresonator affects the electrothermal tuning performance under moderate conditions at room temperature. The effect of surface roughness on electrothermal tuning is complicated and involves interactions of mechanical and electrical properties. In addition, the electrothermal damping varied depending on the nanoscale molecular solid structure. These factors affect the signal-to-noise ratio, the effective stress of the beam, and the quality Q-factor of the nanoresonator. © 2013 Yoon et al.