Electron Shuttle Instability for Nano Electromechanical Mass Sensing

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• 作者：C. Stampfer ; J. G&uuml ; ttinger ; C. Roman ; A. Jungen ; T. Helbling ; C. Hierold
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2007
• 出版时间：September 2007
• 年：2007
• 卷：7
• 期：9
• 页码：2747 - 2752
• 全文大小：249K
• 年卷期：v.7,no.9(September 2007)
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

We discuss the potential use of the electromechanical shuttle instability in suspended nanostructures (e.g., nanotubes or nanowires) fornanomechanical sensing. The tunneling-assisted (shuttle-like) electron transport mechanism is addressed from a mechanical andelectromechanical point of view, showing strong dependencies on the fundamental frequency, the mechanical restoring and damping force,and the electromechanical charging of the suspended nanostructure. We propose to use these nonlinear dependencies to sense minute mass(and tension) changes. Therefore, we introduce a conceptual sensing device and investigate its operation in the frame of a simple modelsystem. Finally, we discuss different measurement techniques and report on high sensitivities (e.g., 1 nA/zeptogram (zg), or 1 mV/zg dependingon the measurement technique) and potential resolutions in the range of 10 zg (10^-23 kg).