Nanostructured silicon for studying fundamental aspects of nanomechanics

Abstract

Nanomechanics features three-dimensional nanostructuring, which allows full exploitation of the mechanical degree of freedom on the nanometre scale. In this work a number of exemplifying experiments on nano-electromechanical systems realized in silicon materials will be presented. First an introduction to the underlying mechanics will be given and finite element methods required for simulations will be discussed. Further topics presented include measurement methods for probing the mechanical properties of free standing nanowires, sensor applications and nonlinear properties of nanomechanical resonators. Other applications such as parametric frequency tuning are demonstrated and the major sources of dissipation are discussed. Finally, an outlook over the fundamental limits of nanoresonators is given.