High-quality nanomechanical resonator based on a defect-free gold nanowire

Abstract

Nanomechanical resonators were fabricated using defect-free single-crystalline Au nanowires (NWs), and their mechanical properties were investigated by using the magneto-motive detection method. The fabricated Au NW resonators exhibited a resonance frequency of 33-119 MHz and a quality factor of 1800 similar to 11000, depending on the resonator's dimensions. Compared to its amorphous film counterpart, the Au NW resonator showed noticeable increases in both the resonance frequency and the quality factor. Also observed was a significant increase in the dynamic range for the NW resonator. These improvements could be attributed to low and uniform energy dissipation by the defect-free single-crystalline Au NW resonator. In addition, the length dependence of the nonlinear characteristics was observed. Mechanical softening was observed in the case of short (l = 2 A mu m and 3 A mu m) resonators while mechanical hardening was observed in the case of long (l = 4 A mu m) resonators.