Roberto De Alba

Temperature-dependence of stress and elasticity in wet-transferred graphene membranes

We report measurements of the mechanical properties of two suspended graphene membranes in the temperature range of 80 K to 550 K. For this entire range, the resonant frequency and quality factor of each device were monitored continuously during cooling and heating. Below 300 K, we have additionally measured the resonant frequencys tunability via electrostatic force, and modeled this data to determine graphenes tension and elastic modulus; both of these parameters are found to be strongly temperature-dependent in this range. Above 300 K, we observe a resonant frequency (and therefore tension) minimum near room temperature. This suggests that the thermal expansion coefficient is positive for temperatures below roughly 315 K, and negative for higher temperatures. Lastly, we observe a large, reproducible hysteresis in the resonant frequency as our graphene devices are cycled between 300 K and 550 K. After returning to 300 K, the measured frequency evolves exponentially in time with a time constant of ∼24 h...

Low-Power Photothermal Self-Oscillation of Bimetallic Nanowires

We investigate the nonlinear mechanics of a bimetallic, optically absorbing SiN-Nb nanowire in the presence of incident laser light and a reflecting Si mirror. Situated in a standing wave of optical intensity and subject to photothermal forces, the nanowire undergoes self-induced oscillations at low incident light thresholds of <1 μW due to engineered strong temperature-position (T-z) coupling. Along with inducing self-oscillation, laser light causes large changes to the mechanical resonant frequency ω0 and equilibrium position z0 that cannot be neglected. We present experimental results and a theoretical model for the motion under laser illumination. In the model, we solve the governing nonlinear differential equations by perturbative means to show that self-oscillation amplitude is set by the competing effects of direct T-z coupling and 2ω0 parametric excitation due to T-ω0 coupling. We then study the linearized equations of motion to show that the optimal thermal time constant τ for photothermal feedback is τ → ∞ rather than the previously reported ω0 τ = 1. Lastly, we demonstrate photothermal quality factor (Q) enhancement of driven motion as a means to counteract air damping. Understanding photothermal effects on nano- and micromechanical devices, as well as nonlinear aspects of optics-based motion detection, can enable new device applications as oscillators or other electronic elements with smaller device footprints and less stringent ambient vacuum requirements.