2016/07/01 by Changyao Chen, Damián H. Zanette, Jeffrey R. Guest +2
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced MEMS and NEMS Technologies #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Physics #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.117.017203
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 017203 (2016) · 24 pages, 16 figures
openalex publication_date 2016/07/01 · arxiv created 2016/12/10 · arxiv updated 2016/12/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Autonomous oscillators, such as clocks and lasers, produce periodic signals without any external frequency reference. In order to sustain stable periodic motion, there needs to be an external energy supply as well as nonlinearity built into the oscillator to regulate the amplitude. Usually, nonlinearity is provided by the sustaining feedback mechanism, which also supplies energy, whereas the constituent resonator that determines the output frequency stays linear. Here, we propose a new self-sustaining scheme that relies on the nonlinearity originating from the resonator itself to limit the oscillation amplitude, while the feedback remains linear. We introduce a model for describing the working principle of the self-sustained oscillations and validate it with experiments performed on a nonlinear microelectromechanical oscillator.