2004/09/01 by Vera Sazonova, V. A. Sazonova, Yuval Yaish +5 · 5 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Carbon Nanotubes in Composites #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature02905
published as Nature 431, 284-287, 2004 · 9 pages, 3 figures
openalex publication_date 2004/09/01 · arxiv created 2004/09/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMs) hold promise for a number of scientific and technological applications. In particular, NEMs oscillators have been proposed for use in ultrasensitive mass detection, radio-frequency signal processing, and as a model system for exploring quantum phenomena in macroscopic systems. Perhaps the ultimate material for these applications is a carbon nanotube. They are the stiffest material known, have low density, ultrasmall cross-sections and can be defect-free. Equally important, a nanotube can act as a transistor and thus may be able to sense its own motion. In spite of this great promise, a room-temperature, self-detecting nanotube oscillator has not been realized, although some progress has been made. Here we report the electrical actuation and detection of the guitar-string-like oscillation modes of doubly clamped nanotube oscillators. We show that the resonance frequency can be widely tuned and that the devices can be used to transduce very small forces.