An all-optical actuation and detection scheme for studying dissipation and materials properties of NEMS resonators

The miniaturization of mechanical resonators continues to be of interest due to the basic physical insights into mechanical behavior at the nanoscale that can be provided, as well as the practical uses in sensing and signal processing to which such devices can be put. Some of the remaining open issues in this field pertain to the ultimate mass sensitivity of these structures, motivating the work presented in this paper. Specifically, we are interested in the factors that determine the dissipation, or quality factor, and the factors that limit the miniaturization that can be achieved with these structures.