Nonlinearity Control of Nanoelectromechanical Resonators

To achieve high performance of nanoelectromechanical resonators in room-temperature and low-vacuum conditions, the precise control of electrothermal power is critical in not only frequency tuning but also regulating nonlinearity in the radio-frequency range. This study presents theoretical analysis and experimental results for controlling nonlinearity of nanoelectromechanical resonators using nonlinear damping and stiffness terms. Experiments show that, with increasing electrothermal power, critical amplitude increases up to where the resonators display linear harmonic oscillation. As a result, the linearity of the resonator that has been driven into the nonlinear regime can be reclaimed.