Scientific Achievement
A micromechanical resonator (3 μm×10 μm×500 μm) was built. It consists of a mechanically tethered single-crystal silicon beam. The resonator response exhibits three distinct timescales that span five orders of magnitude larger than the forcing period.
Significance and Impact
This approach has applications in nonlinear robust dynamics related to secure communications, gait control of legged robots, lasers, cardiac response, and brain monitoring.
Research Details
- A theoretical representation of the micromechanical resonator response accurately predicts the nonlinear dynamics. It allows one to suggest the magnitude and timing of pulses needed to control the selection of robust dynamic structures.
Work was performed in part at the Center for Nanoscale Materials.
About Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials
The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers, premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale supported by the DOE Office of Science. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOE’s Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. For more information about the DOE NSRCs, please visit https://science.osti.gov/User-Facilities/User-Facilities-at-a-Glance.
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